Lap Dog
by DTS Guru
Summary: Imprint story. Rated for language.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: This is my first fanfic ever. I've started a gagillion original pieces over the past 15 or so years and finished about 3...so be forewarned...this may go nowhere...also I have a tendency to write in spurts so I'll be obsessed with this for weeks and then I'll forget about it for months before coming back to it, if I ever do come back to it

Disclaimer: Recognizable characters belong to SM; she gets all the money. I get to lay awake in bed all night with her characters running around my head, asking if we could take it from the top with a new spin.

Chapter 1

BPOV

I kept my eyes on the floor, afraid that if I raised them he would see too much in my expression and ruin all my plans. Renee always said that my face was like an open book. And it couldn't be one of those deep, symbolic books they make you read in college, no mine was more like the ones first graders read. See Dick. See Dick run. You get the picture. I didn't stand a chance at fooling him if I met his eyes. So I counted the tiles on the airport floor and prayed that he assumed I was being a good little girl, showing the proper submissive attitude.

"There has to be a way we could get you out of this," he grumbled angrily.

Fear spiked through me. He could still ruin this for me. Until I was through that security gate he could keep me from getting on that plane. And until the plane had taken off he could keep me from escaping. I tried to settled my nerves and focus on the story I had labored over. The cover story may have been slapped together quickly, but I thought it was plausible.

"Charlie is serious about this, Randy. He said that he'd contact his lawyers if I don't show up for visitation this summer. It's only four weeks," my voice shook with the lie. I had never been very good with lying.

Randy's thick fingers gripped my chin and tilted my head up to look at him, stopping us in the middle of the airport. Tears leaked from my eyes, both from the pressure of his fingertips on my chin and from the fear that he would catch on to my scheme.

"I don't want you to go."

The tears blurred my vision as the truth popped out of my mouth without my consent. "I have to."

I sounded desperate to escape in my own ears. Fear coursed through me as a sob burst through my lips. He was going to jerk me out of the airport and beat the snot out of me now. But he must have heard something else in my voice because he crushed me to him in a hug that had me whimpering in pain. "Shh" He whispered lovingly in my ear. "It's only four weeks. Then you'll be home where you belong."

I nodded along with him, glad that he couldn't see my face. He ushered me through the airport tenderly, making sure I wasn't jostled by anyone or crowded. He made sure I had my ticket and baggage claim. He stayed by my side as far as he could through the security process, whispering words of encouragement and reassurance that we would be together again soon. Randy was the scariest person I had ever met. I never knew what to expect out of him. As long as he thought I was doing exactly what he wanted he was the most loving individual I had ever come across. But as soon as I expressed an opinion of my own or 'defied' him he turned into a violent beast. Sometimes even when I tried to please him my best wasn't good enough. But I wouldn't have to worry about that much longer. I was going to get away from him, finally.

My stomach stayed tied in a knot even after we were separated by the security check. I couldn't see Randy any more but I swear I could feel his presence in the building. I wouldn't feel safe until I was off the ground. I wouldn't put it past the psycho to call in a bomb scare if he realized that I was never coming back once that plane took off. I walked past a café, sending my stomach into rolling waves of nausea. My thoughts skittered nervously away from the cause. I couldn't deal with that right now. My steps rushed faster toward my gate. I bought a water at a small newsstand and sipped it until my stomach settled.

Finally after an eternity of sitting in a hard plastic seat it was my turn to board the plane. I discarded my empty water bottle and made my way onto the plane. I found my seat next to an old woman and settled down for another long wait. Chewing on my lip, I pulled out my cell phone. Should I tell Renee now? Or wait until later? I should wait until later. She might call Randy to see what was going on and then he might do something stupid to keep the plane from taking off. She liked Randy and I wasn't entirely sure she would believe me over him. Phil I could trust, but Renee was gullible enough to believe Randy's manipulative ways.

I couldn't call Charlie for the same reason. He would just call Renee to figure out what was going on. I felt bad for springing this on him. He had no idea I was coming out to live with him. This wasn't really the ideal situation. But he had to take me in right? I was his daughter. And sure, he had a new wife and a couple step kids now, but he still had to take me in. The chief of police would look bad if he didn't take in his own daughter. Especially with the trouble I was in.

"Are you ok, Dear?"

I jerked as the woman next to me laid her hand on my bouncing knee. I sent her a small apologetic smile. I hadn't even realized I was doing that. I was probably driving the poor woman crazy. "Just a little anxious to get in the air."

The woman smiled kindly at me. "I understand. It should only be another moment or two. They've just asked everyone to buckle their seat belts."

I scrambled to fasten mine. The stewardess explained all the safety rules then the pilot had a few words, and then we were taxing to the runway. My nerves began to take over my whole body. I felt like electricity was running up and down my arms and legs. I needed to get up and move. I needed to bounce. I needed to run. I needed to scream. I needed to do something! I had to get out of this place. My breath started to come faster and a wave of heat washed over me.

"Dear?"

I turned to the woman next to me with wide eyes.

She handed me a white paper bag. "Here, breathe into this. Try to breathe slowly."

I grabbed the bag and did as she said, but it wasn't helping. Then I closed my eyes and concentrated on forcing my breathing to slow as I felt the plane taking off. I was doing it! I was getting away! I felt moisture leaking out of the corners of my eyes as relief coursed through me. Randy would never lay another hand on me. He would never hit me again. Never force me to touch him again. Never force me into his bed again. I was free.

Sobs tore through me as the knowledge settled in. I was truly free. I didn't even care if Charlie took me in. If I had to I would get in touch with Phil and have him help me. He would believe me and I knew he would help me if Charlie didn't.

I felt a hand settle on my back and I cowered in reflex.

"Miss? Are you ok? Do we need to turn the plane around?"

"NO!" I yelled at the stewardess in a panic.

Great, now I was making a scene. Everyone on the plane was staring at me. _Wait, don't they detour planes for problem passengers? I better calm myself down before I cause them to turn around __and hand me over to the cops._

I had to do something to make this better.I turned to her and moderated my tone. "Please don't turn around. I'm just relieved is all. I'm finally going home and I'm just relieved."

The woman looked at me skeptically. I had been crying awfully loudly for that. "Are you sure? We're still very close to the airport. It won't take long."

I took a deep breath. "I'm sure. I'm finally going to see my dad after five years of not being allowed to visit. I had this irrational fear that something would go wrong and I wouldn't get to go. So I just over-reacted when the plane finally took off. That's all. I'm very sorry."

She straightened. "Ok. Why don't I get you a drink? Water or soda?"

"Water please."

The old woman in the seat next to me patted my hand. "It's nice that you get to see your dad, Dear."

I nodded my head. "I miss him."

She smiled at me again. "Why don't you tell me all about him?"

"Well…he's the chief of police for a small town called Forks in Washington. But he lives on the Quileute reservation La Push because he ended up marrying one of his best friend's widows…."

I talked until my throat was dry and my bladder was screaming. Strangely, my nerves had calmed considerably though. My seat mate, Dolores, was a really good listener. I told her stories about growing up in Forks and visiting La Push. I told her about my friend Jake and how much fun we had playing together on the beach while our dads fished. I couldn't tell her about Randy. So I told her that I thought my mother had enough time with me and now that she had a new husband it was time for my father to get a couple years with me before I was off on my own.

By the time I made my way to the miniscule bathroom and back Dolores was asleep. I pulled out my well-worn copy of Pride and Prejudice and began reading. I always wished I was more like Elizabeth Bennet. She spoke her mind and didn't let anyone sway her opinions. Elizabeth certainly wouldn't have let Randy treat her the way I had let Randy treat me. She wouldn't have let him tell her how to behave, how to think, how to feel. I straightened my shoulders as tears threatened to fall. _ Well from now on I'm going to be more like Elizabeth. I'm on this plane, aren't I? I have to be more like Elizabeth. I don't have a choice. _A shot of panic skittered through my body but I beat it into submission. _Focus! Deal with getting to Charlie first. You can deal with the other later. Much later. You don't even have to think about that right now. One thing at a time. Just breath._


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Still belongs to SM

Chapter 2

PPOV

Ugh. Sam was in the kitchen making out with Emily again. Hell, it wasn't even their kitchen. Those two were worse than rabbits. How did they not have like ten kids already? Wasn't she his perfect match to pass on the genetic traits of the werewolf? So shouldn't they be popping out puppies already? They'd been together long enough and they were always going at it. She must be on birth control because the flickers of memories that the pack was forced to endure sure didn't include Sam rolling on any rubbers.

I rolled my eyes and looked away only to encounter the site of Kim and Jared sitting in the corner of Charlie and Sue's living room, whispering and giggling to each other. Those two were just as bad. Fucking imprinting. What a cluster fuck that was. Emily and Kim had Sam and Jared by the balls and the guys didn't even care. They enjoyed it. No, they loved it. They couldn't stop thinking about their girls. Sam and Jared had to do whatever the girls wanted. They had to be whatever the girls wanted them to be, relationship-wise. They couldn't even think about another girl now. They couldn't go out and enjoy a one night stand now. They would run the other way if some random chick came up and offered herself to them. Literally run. What the fuck? Who doesn't take advantage of no-strings pussy? All they saw was their imprint. It wasn't even that they only wanted to see their imprint. They didn't have a _choice_ in the matter. Sam had loved Leah before the imprint. He never would have looked twice at Emily before the imprint. But because of some stupid wolf trait he had to break his word and Leah's heart and go through the hassle of trying to win Emily's heart. How could they just take that laying down? Why weren't they fighting it?

"What crawled up your ass?" Leah asked as she sat down beside me.

I glared at her. "Nothing, Bitch."

"You look pissed. Is it the crabs? That's what you get for putting it in every wet hole you come across."

I growled at her. I was so sick of this bitch.

Sam glanced up from sucking Emily's face. "If you're so eager to tear someone apart go relieve Quil, Paul. He's got school in the morning and you don't."

I pushed off the couch with a grunt. I'd run patrol that morning and I'd only had a couple hours sleep since. But if my choices were to sit around here and watch these douche-bags making out or run the chance of coming across a bloodsucker then hell yeah, I'll run patrol. As I got closer to the door I realized that none of us had been paying attention to the sounds outside the house. Great protectors we were. Charlie's house could have been ambushed while they were all playing footsie.

"Hey, Charlie, are you expecting company?"

"No."

"Well there's a taxi leaving and someone's here."

I opened up the front door just as a petite girl raised her hand to knock. She looked up at me with a nervous expression and I fell into twin pools of chocolate and drowned.

Holy Fuck.

She was here.

The most perfect being in the entire planet was standing on Charlie's front porch staring at me. I swallowed as my throat went dry. What do I say? Do I introduce myself? _Jackass! She's staring at you waiting for you to say something. Say anything!_

"Are you Seth? Sue's son?"

"Uh, no. I'm Paul." _But I can be like Seth if that's what you need. _

"Is Charlie here?"

I backed up and turned around, pointing toward him.

"Bella? Charlie asked in disbelief.

Bella. What a beautiful name. _Yeah, Dumb Ass, it literally means beautiful._ It fit her.

"Dad!" She pushed past me and ran into Charlie's arms.

I stared at her for a long moment, fighting the urge to rip her out of Charlie's arms and surround her in my own. I felt my body shaking. Why the hell was I jealous of Charlie hugging his own daughter? I'd never met the girl before. Sure, she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. And I would do anything to erase that sadness I'd seen in her eyes but…

Panic shot through me. Hell no.

"Paul," Sam called out as I spun on my heel and ran out the door.

Fuck. No, no, no, no, no. I had NOT just imprinted on Charlie's daughter. No way in hell I had imprinted, and certainly not on some girl who lived in Arizona. She was going to get on a plane and go back when her visit was over. Hell, this was the first visit in years. My heart stuttered. She would leave in a few weeks, probably never to return again. Pain shot through me. NO! I was not going to give in to this.

I made it to the cover of the trees and phased with no regard for my clothes. There went another cheap-ass shirt and pair of shorts from Wal-Mart. I paced back and forth, trying to get her beautiful brown eyes out of my mind. But they were cemented in there. I couldn't get them out. I shook my head roughly back and forth.

_Paul?_ Sam asked as he appeared next to me.

_What?_ I growled out.

_What happened when you saw Bella?_

_Bella! Bella's here?_ Quil asked excitedly.

_Stay on patrol_ Sam ordered. _You'll see her when you're relieved._

He turned back to me. While he'd been talking with Quil, my mind had been replaying my first view of Bella through my escape out of Charlie's house.

_Jacob's gonna kill you. _ Quil thought with amusement. _He's had a thing for Bella since he was five._

A growl ripped through me before I could stop it. _And how does she feel about him?_

_ She calls him her little brother, but he never gets the point._

I would kill the little fucker if he made her the least bit uncomfortable while she was here.

_Calm down, Paul_ Sam commanded. _We'll make sure he understands that he's to stay away from her now._

_ I'm gonna kill him!_ Jacob burst into the pack mind, his thoughts full of fury.

I turned to him ready for a fight, sure he was coming at me for imprinting on his crush.

Then the images flitting through his mind crashed into mine and a growl ripped through my throat as the others began pouring into the forest. While I had run away like a pussy when I realized what had happened, the others had stayed in the house long enough to notice little things about Bella's appearance and behavior. Like the way she cringed when Charlie patted her back during their hug. And the healing bruises on her body. All over her body. She had fading bruises on her neck and poorly covered by makeup on her face. She had them on her arms. They stayed to listen as she took Charlie's hand and nervously pulled him into the kitchen away from prying eyes. They heard her whispering as she had raised her shirt enough to show them to Charlie on her back, stomach and legs, not realizing that the boys in the living room could hear every word spoken.

The small clearing filled with snarls as the boys passed the information back and forth. Fury rolled through me. The fight against the imprint was forgotten. How could anyone touch her like that? She was perfect. She was the most wonderful creature in the world and someone had dared to hurt her, repeatedly. I was going to hunt him down and I was going to tear him limb from limb. I was going to do it slowly. I might even do it in human form so it would last longer.

I realized that everyone else was staring at me in shock.

_What?_

Jacob stalked forward. _You imprinted on My Bella?_

A growl ripped through me. _Your Bella? She's not yours mother-fucker! That prick that hit her probably thought she was his too! _

_ Well she's not yours either!_

_ I know that!_

_ Both of you calm down now! _Sam ordered. _Jacob, drop it! Paul can't help who he imprinted on. Paul I take it this means you've stopped fighting the imprint?_

I growled at him, not amused with his sarcasm. _Is she ok?_

_ She came out here to escape an abusive boyfriend. _ Embry volunteered as he moved slowly into the group. Apparently he'd outlasted us all, managing to stay in the house while she explained her situation to Charlie in the kitchen. I was going to hunt down the boyfriend and kill him.

_She's strong to get out when she did. She wouldn't get out for herself but she would for them…_

My heart stuttered as Embry's memory played out for us all. Bella hadn't said anything to Charlie yet, but Embry had clearly heard three heartbeat's in her small body. Hers, fast with anxiety and two even faster beats, located a little lower in her torso. Heat rolled through me. I felt nauseous at the realization that the same fucker who'd laid his hands on her had touched her in other ways too. Had she been forced? Knowing that she'd run from him I was fairly certain I knew the answer. The fucker had to die. I felt Jacob's agreement.

_LEECH, LEECH, LEECH_ Quil yelled, repeating himself as adrenaline shot through his body. SHIT. THERE'S THREE OF THEM!

_We're on our way. Stay on their trail but don't engage until backup gets there. _Sam ordered.

The pack took off in Quil's direction, running for all we were worth. I pushed my paws out faster. This was the perfect opportunity. I couldn't tear into the mother-fucker who hurt my Bella but I had three scapegoats here just begging for it.

_Scapegoats huh? That's an awfully big word for you._ Jacob sneered, angered at my possessive claim on the girl he thought of as his own.

_Yeah, well that's the benefit of an older man. I'm more educated._ I sneered right back at him.

_That's enough boys. Let's focus on your brother. Remember, the one who is on the trail of three bloodsuckers? By himself?_

I tried to focus on the forest floor flying by under my paws. Against my will an image of Bella's eyes flashed across my mind again. I could see all the pain and fear in her gaze again and something in my chest tightened at the memory. Bella wasn't supposed to be in pain, _ever. _ It was my job to keep her life pain free and so far I was failing miserably.

_Paul, you can't be held responsible for what has happened in her past. You weren't there. You didn't know her. I'm sure you'll do fine. _ Sam reassured me.

As one we veered to the left as we came across the overwhelming scent of bleach and sugar. We could feel Quil just ahead, stalking the trio, who were in turn nearing a family of campers. We couldn't see the campers but we could smell them and hear them half a mile into the forest. We had to catch the bloodsuckers now before they got any closer to their prey. They had been too wrapped up in their hunt to notice Quil's lone presence but the scent of so many wolves couldn't be overlooked. As one the bloodsuckers turned, caught sight of us and the pursuit was on.

I was closest to a blond man with a leather jacket. I broke off from the pack, grabbing his arm with my teeth, jerking it off with a shrill metallic sound. He snarled at me and swiped with his other arm. Adrenaline and joy poured through me. This is my life's purpose. This is what I was designed for. Some of the others weren't happy when they learned that the legends were true, that they would turn into giant furry monsters whose sole purpose was to destroy. I loved it.

His arm connected but I ignored the pain of ribs snapping and whipped my head around to grab this arm too. _Hah! Weren't expecting that, were you mother-fucker!_ With a shake of my head I ripped this arm off too. The vamp couldn't defend himself well without either arm. Not that he didn't try. It was kind of sad really. Almost made me feel sorry for him as I tore him to shreds.

_Paul! _I vaguely heard Sam's mental voice yell in the background.

_ Paul!_

_ STOP NOW! _ I jerked to a halt as Sam issued an Alpha command. What the hell? Why would he make me stop? Wasn't this our job?

_It'd be hard to burn all the pieces if you make them too small to find, Paul._ Sam responded wryly.

I looked around. What the hell had happened? There were bite-sized pieces of bloodsucker scattered around in a ten-foot radius of me. Ugh. There were even pieces stuck in my fur. I shook myself vigorously, spraying them out even further. It looked like the blond fucker was the only casualty though. _What happened to the other two?_

_They got away._ Quil complained as he trotted back into the small clearing, breathing heavily from the chase.

Jared shook his head in amazement. _I've never seen one move as fast as that red-head._

_ Come on. Let's get this cleaned up and get back home. _Sam commanded. _Seth you're going to take over Quil's patrol for now. I'll come relieve you in a couple hours._

My thoughts immediately turned to Bella as we gathered the vampire pieces and burned them. Charlie probably didn't want me camping out at his house, but I had to be near her. I had to be sure she was ok. If I was close enough to hear her heartbeat that would be enough for me. I considered my options as we started the run back to Charlie's. I could stay in wolf form and curl up under her window. Ok, that might be a little too stalkerish. Maybe under a tree close by? That wouldn't be too weird right?

Jared snorted next to me.

_Like you're any better with Kim._

His mind filled with images of Kim at the mention of her name. Many of which I didn't want to see. How was I supposed to look the girl in the eye when I knew what her O face looked like? Seriously? That shit's not cool. Jared snapped at me with a warning growl as Embry snickered.

Charlie's house came into view and my paws slowed. Part of me wanted to run up to the house but another part of me was scared. This was all new territory for me. I wasn't used to having feelings for a girl. I had never had a girlfriend before. I fucked girls. I didn't date them.

Jacob growled.

_JACOB DON'T… _Sam called out.

I turned just as something slammed the side that was still sore from the bloodsucker's blow.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: SM owns it all, well ok, not _all_, just all the Twilight stuff; I own a little over two acres in the country, a currently very untidy house and a red mini-van from which I miraculously removed black sharpie hand-prints. Go me...I'm not claiming Randy. He's a prick.

BPOV

Charlie held me close, being more careful this time now that he knew about the bruising. I closed my eyes and allowed myself to rest in his arms. It had been so long since I had truly felt safe. I knew this man loved me. Truly loved me and would do anything to keep me safe.

He pulled back and cradled my face. "Why didn't you say something sooner Bella? I would have come down there and gotten you. I'll throw that boy's ass in jail right now!"

"Please don't do it, Dad."

His face clouded. "Don't tell me you still love him."

"No!" I protested. "NO. I just…I can't go back there. I can't testify. I can't. I won't."

I wasn't going anywhere near Randy again. He would only have more motivation to control me if he saw me again in a few month's time.

Charlie closed his eyes, his teeth grinding together. "We'll talk about this after you've had a chance to rest. You're probably tired from traveling. Why don't we get you settled and get you some dinner?"

"That sounds good, Dad."

Charlie walked down a short hall and opened a door motioning me in ahead of him. "This is your room."

I walked in slowly. "My room?"

I hadn't been to visit in years and the man had a room for me? As I looked around tears filled my eyes. This room clearly had been set aside for me. The walls were yellow and the bedspread and curtains were purple. Those had been my favorite colors back when Renee had yanked me out of my father's life. There were pictures of Charlie and me on the desk, one of us fishing when I was eight and one of us sitting on the couch together from just a few weeks before Renee took me away.

I turned and rushed into his arms again, squeezing him tightly.

"Bells," he whispered into my hair. "It's good to have you home."

"I'm sorry I didn't make Renee let me visit. I should have been stronger. I'm sorry I'm not stronger, Daddy."

"Shhh. It's ok, Baby. You're here now."

I'm not sure how long we stood there, Charlie rubbing gentle circles on my back. It must have been awhile though because Sue had enough time to cook dinner. She knocked quietly on the door, jerking me out of a trance. _My goodness, I was almost asleep on my feet!_

"Dinner's ready you two." She sent us both a loving smile before moving toward the hall.

"She seems really nice."

Charlie's smile widened. "She's great."

I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth. "It's not going to be a problem, me being here right?"

He pulled me against his side and led me to the kitchen. "Of course not. The more the merrier. I'm sure Seth will love having another sister and Leah will like having a girl her age around. She's surrounded by boys all the time. She runs around with Jacob Black and his group."

I frowned. Jacob Black. That name sounded familiar. "Billy Black's boy Jake?"

"That's the one." Charlie affirmed, pulling out a chair at the kitchen table for me.

I had vague memories of a little runt of a kid, smaller than the other kids his age. "Did he ever catch up to the kids his age?"

Charlie snickered and Sue shot him a warning look.

"What?"

An awful snarling racket interrupted before they could respond. It sounded like two wild animals were trying to kill each other in the front yard.

"What the hell is it this time?" Charlie exclaimed with exasperation, jumping out of his seat.

He ran for the front door. Sue followed. Were they having a bear problem here? Wild dogs? I jumped up and followed, too curious to stay safely in my seat. Besides, Charlie had a gun right? He wouldn't have just run out the front door without some kind of protection, would he? He had sounded like this was something that happened frequently, so he had to be prepared. I stumbled out onto the front porch, nearly slamming into Sue's back.

I threw a hand over my mouth to keep from screaming. Holy Crow! There were two giant bear-sized wolves fighting right there in the front lawn. More wolves were lined up near the tree-line, like spectators. How insane was that? Snarls and growls ripped from the snouts of the two fighting but the others watching were perfectly silent. What? How was that possible? That was not natural. And Charlie!

Charlie was down on the ground now. But what was he doing? He didn't have a gun! And he was yelling at them to stop it! Was he out of his mind? My father stalked over to the house, _turning his back on the wild animals_, grabbed the water hose, turned it on and stalked back to stand several feet from the fighting wolves. Now I thought I heard sounds from the ones near the forest, but that wasn't possible. Wolves don't snicker. Was I losing my mind?

Then Charlie turned the hose on the wolves full blast, like they were ordinary pets. Like they wouldn't turn on him and rip him to shreds. I felt myself growing faint. There was no railing on the porch, just a three-foot fall to the ground. I backed up slowly so that I could lean against the door to steady myself. I wanted to hide in the house, but I would never forgive myself if something happened to my father and I was too chicken to be here for him.

The two wolves abruptly pulled away from each other but Charlie kept the water on them.

"What the hell do you two think you're doing?" He yelled.

And then I knew I was going crazy. Or maybe I had passed out and was now having a bizarre hallucination. That had to be the case. This certainly wasn't reality. The two wild animals did not charge my father. No, instead they seemed to hang their heads in shame. The air around the wolves began to blur and then they weren't wolves. They were naked men.

Charlie calmly dropped the water hose, walked to the porch, reached under and pulled out two pair of shorts and tossed them at the men, or were they boys? The closer I looked the younger they looked, despite their enormous size. They were my age or only a couple years older at the most.

"Jake, Paul, explain why you were fighting in my front yard." _But never mind the part about being werewolves?_

Jake lowered his head and mumbled something. The body language alone proved that this was Billy Black's son, no matter how hard it was to believe with the drastic change in size. I'd had a lot of exposure to the way Jake's shoulders slumped when our fathers would reprimand us.

I couldn't hear much of what he said but I did make out my name. I frowned and stepped forward as the other combatant raised his head to meet my eyes. This other boy was the one who had answered Charlie's door. Paul. The one who had run out of the house with a pissed off expression. Why were they talking about me?

Charlie turned back to me with a frown.

"Bella?" He called out hesitantly.

"Yes?" My voice didn't want to work. My response barely carried to him.

"When did you come outside?"

"She saw it all, Charlie." Someone called out.

I glanced toward the voice to see that all of the wolves at the forest edge had changed into young men in cut-off pants. Most of them I had seen earlier in Charlie's living room. My heart started to pound as I turned back to my father. What was going on here? What were these people? Had I escaped one monster only to move into an entire community of them? Was Charlie a monster? What would they do to me now that I knew their secret? Blackness began to creep up from the bottom of my vision as heat filled my body.

_Breathe Bella. You can't pass out on the porch. You'll fall off and break your neck. That's just what you need, to be paralyzed on top of everything else. _

"Fuck. She's fainting." I heard from one of the two wolves closest to me.

I vaguely saw someone bounding up the stairs toward me as my body started to go limp. Sue's hands grasped at my arms and then large, hot hands wrapped around me and pulled me into something deliciously warm as the black over-took everything.

The first thing I noticed was that someone was running a hand through my hair. A very hot hand. He was starting at the temple and slowly caressing down to the base of my neck with just the right amount of pressure and then pulling his fingers all the way through the ends of my hair before started at the temples again. It felt so good I kept my eyes closed and enjoyed the moment while he went through the cycle three more times. My mind played over the memories of the events I had witnessed while I enjoyed the sensations. _I saw two wolves turn into Jake and Paul. And I know all those boys standing by the forest were wolves earlier. I'm not crazy. And Charlie and Sue were right there and they didn't act surprised. So they already knew. So. What am I going to do with this information? Do I need to do anything with this information? If I was in trouble for knowing then I doubt someone would be giving me a head massage right now._ Somehow I knew this wasn't Charlie. I was hoping it was Jake. I knew Jake. I could deal with Jake being a little too hands-on. I would have to set him straight and let him know that this was a one time occurrence and never to happen again. But it felt too nice to stop him just yet. There was no reason for it to be anyone else though. Who else would it be? None of the others knew me well enough. Only Quil and Embry knew me at all from before and they only barely knew me. Why would they be so intimate?

Back to the matter at hand. So I was surrounded by werewolves. Werewolves with some kind of temper problem. So why had this Paul guy attacked Jacob? Did it have something to do with me? Jake had mentioned my name, or at least I thought I heard my name. Why would they be fighting over me though? Paul didn't know me. I frowned slightly as I thought back to when I first saw him. For a split second there when he answered Charlie's door he'd had the strangest expression of devotion and love on his face. Then the next time I saw him he was literally a vicious beast. A shudder wracked my body. Maybe he was like Randy. All loving and tender one moment and violent the next.

"Are you ok?" The moment was over. My thoughts were probably flitting across my face and Jake was tired of watching the show.

I opened my eyes slowly. Only, it wasn't Jake holding my head in his lap. It was Paul. And that scary devoted look was back. I scrambled into a seated position as fast as I could, putting my back against the far side of the couch.

"Where is my Dad?"

"He's just down the hall, in his room." Paul said, his hands held up in what was probably supposed to be a calming manner.

I studied him carefully. "And why were you holding me? Why would Charlie leave me with a complete stranger? Why would he let you hold me like that when I don't even know you?"

"Because he knew I wouldn't hurt you."

I glared at him. "Well I don't know that! I don't even know you!"

Hurt flashed in his eyes, but I had to ignore that. Randy used to use that same manipulative trick on me. He nodded his head though. "That's fair. I'm Paul Meraz. And you have no reason to trust me. I shouldn't have been holding you. I'm sorry."

I narrowed my eyes. _What's his game here?_

"Have you ever heard the Quileute legends?"

I nodded my head slowly. "Sure. Jake used to try to scare me with them. But come on, vampires? Werewolves…"

Oh.

Paul cocked an eyebrow at me.

I settled further back into the couch, trying to adjust to this new knowledge. So now the world was inhabited by not just one type of monster, but two? Was the bogey man real too? Should I book a flight to England and start looking for Hogwarts?

"So, vampires?"

He nodded.

"Anything else I should know about?"

And just like that the big strong man in front of me was as nervous as a little boy reciting lines at his first school play. He looked away and started fidgeting. What could possibly be worse than werewolves and vampires? I felt my heart beginning to race. If it was making Paul this anxious then did I even really want to know? Maybe I should stop him before he told me. I could live happily without the knowledge. Ignorance is bliss. Right? _No! That's what I did with Randy. I let him lead me along, making decisions for me, feeding me only the information he thought I should know. I need to know all the details and make my own decisions from now on. I need to have all the facts if I'm going to make better decisions than Renee made._

I squared my shoulders and stared hard at Paul. "Just spit it out already."

"Didhetellyouaboutimprinting?" He said the words so quickly they all ran together.

"What?"

He frowned, looked away and spoke more slowly. "Did he tell you the part about imprinting?"

"What is imprinting?"

"Damn." Paul's shoulders slumped, like he had been hoping that I would already know what he was talking about and he would be off the hook. He rubbed both hands across his short hair quickly before turning his back against the other corner of the couch so that he was facing me.

"Ok. Here's the thing. You know I'm a wolf. The wolves have this fucked up thing called imprinting. It's kind of a love at first sight thing, and whoever the wolf imprints on becomes the most important person in his or her life."

An uneasy feeling began eating at the pit of my stomach. There was only one reason he would be telling me this. _No. No. Please no._ "Why are you telling me this?"  
His eyes pleaded with me. "Bella…"

_Oh, no. Please not me. Tell me he didn't imprint on me. I'll never be safe with this monster glued to my side._

"I promise, there is no pressure on you here!" his whole body was leaning forward, his tone pleading desperately for me to hear him out. "You don't owe me anything. I don't expect anything out of you. Hell, you didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for this either. I didn't want to imprint on you. I don't want to take long fucking walks on the beach and grow old and make _more_ babies with you. I just have to watch out for you, make sure you and _those_ babies are safe and happy, that's all. "

I was all set to storm out of the room and then the world came crashing down around me as I absorbed his words. "What? What did you say? What do you mean make sure these babies are safe?"

His eyes widened. "Fuck…shit." He opened his mouth again. Closed it. We stared at each other for a long moment before his eyes darted down to my stomach and back up again with a panicked expression. Finally he sat back in defeat, leaned his head back to stare at the ceiling and started muttering to himself. "Ah hell Meraz, you big fuck-up. She didn't even know she was pregnant."

"How…why…what makes you say I am?" Did he say babies? Babies? More than one?

He rolled his eyes. "We've got super hearing. Makes hangovers even more of a son-of-a-bitch." He leaned forward again. "Look. I'm sorry for breaking it to you that way."

I shook my head. "Did you say babies? Plural?"

He nodded. "Two heartbeats."

"Oh." I was stunned. Randy had saddled me with not one but two kids. I mean, I knew it was a possibility. It was the entire reason I was sitting on Charlie's couch. I was only one week late though; how could he hear the heartbeats already?

"Hey, you ok?"

I saw a large hand coming toward me from the corner of my eye and instinct took over. I flinched away before I could think about it. _I wonder how long I'll do that before I learn to stop._

"Sorry," I muttered.

The couch began to vibrate. I looked up in amazement to see Paul visibly shaking.

"Don't apologize," he ground out from clenched teeth before jumping off the couch.

He started pacing back and forth.

"Are you ok?"

He was breathing hard. "No. I want to go find that fucker who made you so scared of a simple pat on the leg and tear him apart limb from limb. But Sam says I'm only allowed to do that to vampires. The Bastard. So I'm thinking I need to find a vampire and force them to turn him first."

"What?"

He nodded quickly. "Yeah. See, we could have him all ready in a cage and get our hands on a vamp. I figure the leech will be lashing out, fighting to get away and we can just put the fucker's arm in the way. Then I could tear the first vamp up and wait for the fucker to change. Then I could take him out of the cage and tear him up. Or, even better, I could keep him in there and torture him. Maybe tear off a small part every other day or so. Drag it out slowly. Of course, I'd have to keep the parts separate."

I watched Paul pacing back and forth, plotting his revenge against a boy he had never even met. I knew I should be scared of him. He was clearly far too violent to ever be considered safe. But he was indulging this twisted daydream on my behalf. How could I not appreciate that? Especially considering it was Randy he was talking about? I would love to hurt Randy, if I knew that I could do it without the man somehow turning it around to hurt me. But I knew that I wasn't strong enough. If I went after him he would inevitably get his claws into me again.

Eventually Paul wound down, collapsing onto the couch again. He rolled his head sideways, suddenly appearing too tired to even lift his head from the couch. "I'm sorry if I scared you. I'm a real fuck-up. I'm not very good at this, but I'll try hard to be the friend you need."

I still didn't trust him. The boy said I was the most important thing in the world to him at first glance. That wasn't trustworthy. That was certifiable. _He_ was certifiable. And possibly bi-polar. He jumped from angry to apologetic so fast I was going to get whip-lash. I needed to watch myself around him.

"Ok. I'll try to be a friend too." Because otherwise the crazy man might kill me.

I stood. Ready to get the psycho out of Charlie's house. "I'm going to go to bed now. So…"

He stretched out on the couch. "Goodnight."

I frowned down at him. "Um…do you live here too?"

He grinned at me. "Charlie said I could crash here tonight."

"Oh. Well…do you need a blanket or anything?" Thanks so much Charlie.

"Naw. Here," he held his arm out. "See how warm I am?"

I reached out my hand tentatively. His skin was burning up, hotter than the highest fever I had ever felt before.

"Wolves run about 108." He explained.

"Oh."

"See ya in the morning."

"Ok then."

I backed away slowly, not really wanting to turn my back on him.

"Sweet dreams, Bella."

"Uh, you too Paul."

I was afraid he would say something else, which would require another reply from me, so I turned and quickly made my way to my room, shutting my door firmly behind me. I smiled in relief when I saw the lock. I quickly turned it and collapsed on the bed. Maybe all of this would be a horrible dream and the world would return to normal when I woke up in the morning. I prayed that was the case. I wasn't sure that I could handle a world of vampires and werewolves.

A/N: Wow, this particular muse is a real slave driver. That or all the meds I'm on for the asthma flare-up are fantastic for writing. My asthma nearly killed me over the past four days and I'm kind of sick of the steroids, antibiotics, cough medicines, plus my regular inhaler and meds but hell if this is the result maybe it was worth it. Cause I've drafted six more chapters after this and outlined three or four after that. I think I've just about figured out where I'm going with this. Which rarely happens for me. Good news, I'm finally starting to breath a little better today, bad news I won't have as much time to sit on my lazy ass and write. My employers expect me to go back to work in exchange for my paycheck...Anyway, I'm kind of neutral about this chapter. Parts are good, parts are ehh, parts are filler.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A/N: Yeah, I just thought I was breathing better yesterday. Landed my ass in the ER today. Breathing treatment and 13% increase in my steroid strength and I'm back home on my couch. But more time to write...so yay? And really, who wants to work anyway? I made that mistake yesterday and ended up on a conference call from 9 am - 4:15 pm.

Disclaimer: You all know I'm not SM and this is hers.

BPOV

Renee only cooked on Saturday mornings. Out of self-defense I had learned to cook all of the other meals because Renee didn't cook much of anything well. But she could cook bacon and eggs. And biscuits from a can. So every Saturday morning she would make breakfast. At first it was just the two of us, enjoying our eggs and bacon while we drank coffee and worked the crossword together. Then Phil came along and he worked into our morning routine flawlessly. We were even able to fill in at least six more of the clues most weekends, more when there were sports related ones.

_I love the smell of bacon. _

I rolled over as the smell of the bacon cooking and the voices talking in the kitchen hit me at the same time. Then my stomach somersaulted. With a groan I jumped off the bed. I wasted precious seconds fumbling with the lock on my door before I could yank it open and rush toward the bathroom. _Please be empty, please be empty._

Paul was opening the bathroom door just as I came to it. I shoved against his chest, pushing him back against the wall, in too much of a rush to care about being polite. Besides, the boy said I was his world, so he shouldn't care if I was a little rough, right? I barely made it to the toilet before I lost control of my stomach and the heaving started. Of course, there wasn't much to lose. We never had gotten around to eating dinner the night before, what with the wolf fight in the front yard and then the resulting heart-to-heart with my own personal psycho stalker. What a lucky girl I am.

I felt over-heated hands pulling my hair away from my face and neck as I heaved. He either didn't know what to say or he realized that I didn't want to hear anything because he was silent behind me as my body held me captive over the toilet. After what felt like hours my stomach finally calmed. I sat back and closed my eyes. _What a beautiful start to the day._

"I hate the smell of bacon." I moaned, my throat raw.

"Will crackers help? Water? Is there anything I can do to help you?"

I cracked my eyes open to see that pleading expression on Paul's face again.

I closed my eyes. I couldn't deal with trying to figure out what his game was right now. _But you know what? You can use this. _ The distrusting little voice in my head whispered. _He wants to help you. Use him._

I opened my eyes and considered his expression for a moment. "Can you bring some crackers to my room? And a glass of water?"

A bright smile spread across his face. "Yeah. I'll get 'em right now."

He looked so happy to be getting something for me as he walked out of the bathroom. Like I'd just given him ten-year's worth of Christmas presents. Now I felt horrible for even asking. How does that work? Why should I feel bad for asking when clearly it made his day? What was the harm? _Maybe because you're using someone like Randy used you._

A wave of self-disgust rolled through me. No. I shook as I pulled myself to my feet and rinsed my mouth out. _Ok. No more little experiments like that. You will not play with that boy. He is not a toy. This was harmless. He wanted to help you and you honestly needed the help. But you could be starting down a very dark path here, Bella._

I examined the thought as I walked into my room and sat down on my bed. _What if everything he said last night was true? What if I really am the most important thing in the world to him? I could control him. I would have more power over him than Randy ever had over me._ A shiver ran through me, part fear and part greedy pleasure at the thought of so much power over someone else for a change. Self-disgust quickly followed. No. I would not turn into Randy.

"Here you go," Paul said as he set the water and crackers down on my nightstand, jerking me out of my thoughts. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Not yet. But the crackers will help. Thank you."

The smile lit up his face again, ratcheting up my guilt.

"Can I get you anything else?"

"No. This is enough."

"How about some company?"

I couldn't look at him without feeling guilty for wanting to take over his whole life. "No. I think I'd rather be alone until I'm feeling better. Why don't you go out there and get something to eat? Aren't you teenage guys supposed to be hungry all the time?"

He chuckled. "You should see wolves eat. Teenage boys are nothing compared to us. Call if you need anything at all. OK?"

"I will."

As soon as he left the room I jumped up and locked the door. Then I collapsed on the bed and gave in to tears. What was wrong with me? He might grow fur and fangs but I was the real monster here. How could I even think about doing to someone else what Randy had done to me? True, Paul was about five times bigger than me and I would never be able to control him physically, but clearly he would do anything I asked him to do. And there was still a twisted little part of me that enjoyed that knowledge. I was evil. I was broken inside.

My stomach twisted again, reminding me that I still needed to eat something. I nibbled on a cracker, my thoughts twisting around each other. My cell phone beeped and my heart stopped. I had never told Renee that I had left. She didn't know where I was. It wasn't the first time I'd stayed out all night. She was used to me staying at Randy's on weekend nights. But even she would notice how much clothing was missing from my room if she went in there. Was it Randy? I didn't think I could handle talking to him. With shaking hands I reached for the phone and looked at the caller ID.

I flipped it open quickly. "Phil?"

"Oh, Bella, please tell me you are ok."

"I'm fine, Phil. Um…actually I'm at Charlie's house."

There was a long pause. "That's what Randy said, but I didn't believe him. He said that you were there for the summer visitation but Renee didn't know anything about it. I thought that Randy had done something to you."

My breath hitched.

"Bella," Phil's voice was strained. "He did, didn't he? I had a feeling about that boy, and I didn't…how bad, Bella?"

"I'm staying here, Phil."

"Dammit! I'm gonna kill that little bastard!"

A small smile flittered across my lips. Phil had only been in my life for a short time so far, but he was a good man.

"Take care of Renee for me, Phil. Ok? And, we don't have to tell her about Randy, do we? It would tear her up, you know? We can say that I'm giving you two some honeymoon time. I think Charlie deserves some time with me too. He really missed me, Phil. He had a room all set up and waiting for me, just in case I was ever allowed to visit. And his wife seems really sweet. His house seems to be the hang-out spot for all the local teenagers too." No reason to go into the fact that they liked to kill vampires as a hobby, right?

"I'll miss you, Bella. And I'll break it to Renee easy. Are you sure you don't want to press charges against Randy? You know he could do this to another girl, right?"

I pressed my eyes closed tightly and held a hand on my stomach. Paul said there were two heartbeats. I was having twins. What if Randy's rich parents got him a really good lawyer and he got off? They would go after the babies. They would claim I was an unfit parent, running halfway across the country making crazy claims against their son. They would take my babies. Guilt pressed in on my chest at the thought of Randy hurting some other girl because I didn't do anything about his behavior. But I had to think about the babies. I had to protect them from him. He couldn't find out about them.

"I can't, Phil," I choked out around a tightening throat.

"Ok, Bella." Phil sighed.

"I gotta go, Phil."

"I love you, Bella."

"I love you too, Phil. Kiss Renee for me."

I closed the phone and stared at it. That was done. I was officially moved in with my father. I should feel like a weight was lifted from my shoulders, so why did I feel numb? As I twirled the phone in my hands it rang again. Not even thinking I flipped it open and put it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"I thought you would at least call me to let me know you made it there safely." Randy's tone was tight, angry.

My eyes narrowed. My pulse picked up and my hands began to shake. "Here's the thing, Randy. I never plan on calling you again. I'm never coming back. I'm staying here. Don't ever call me again."

I flipped the phone closed and let out a deep breath. That felt kind of good. I hadn't really said everything I wanted to say, but I was afraid that I would start crying if I kept talking. And then Randy wouldn't take me seriously. He would think I was sad, when really the problem was my stupid tear ducts went into overdrive any time I started getting really emotional, no matter what the emotion was. Plus there was the worry that I would say something I didn't want to say. Until Paul blurted out the baby news I had been doing a decent job of living in denial. Now I couldn't keep my mind off of my pregnancy. I certainly couldn't have that slipping out.

The nausea was gone, maybe the anger burned it away. I made myself get out of bed and throw on some clothes and headed for the kitchen. I still hadn't met Seth and Leah and I needed to stop hiding out in my bedroom.

The kitchen was full of more than just my small step-family and Paul though. Boy was I glad I'd gotten dressed before heading in for breakfast. There were several of the wolf pack in the kitchen. I knew the boys were wolves because they were all large like Paul and they were all shirtless.

Paul stepped forward. "Feeling better?"

I nodded while looking around nervously. There were a lot of people in Charlie's small kitchen.

Paul glanced around, following my line of sight. "Why don't you sit down and I'll get you something to eat?"

I shook my head. "I can get my own food."

Paul frowned. "I want to get it for you."

"I'll get my own." Did he think I was helpless?

"Just tell me what you want and I'll serve you."

I crossed my arms, my guilt nudging me as my ugly side whispered to me _see, he wants to be your servant._ I spoke up, trying to drown out my dark side. "I don't want a lap dog, Paul. I can get my own food."

I stomped over to the stove as the kitchen went deathly silent. I ignored everyone as I dished out my plate. I could feel their eyes darted between Paul and me. I could feel his eyes boring into my back. Apparently, I'd said the magic words to flip his switch from happy-to-serve to pissed off because he was breathing hard again. What happened if he changed to a wolf in here? Was the whole werewolf thing contagious like in the movies? Could he give it to me by biting me? Or would I just die? To tell the truth, I wouldn't mind that much if I died.

There was an empty seat next to Jake, so I sat down and started eating, aware that the entire kitchen was still waiting to see what was going to happen between Paul and me. We were their entertainment. Didn't these people have things to do? Vampires to hunt? Work? A hobby? Something?

"So, Bella. How's it going?" Jake asked.

I looked up at him and smiled. At least he was trying. "I've got to say, Jake. I've been better."

"Sure, sure." He nodded. "But you're here now. So it'll be better now."

I glanced at Paul. He was standing in a corner glaring at Jake and me. "Maybe."

Jake looked at me like he was truly offended. "Bella. You came to us beat up and you say _maybe_ it will be better here? Of course it will be better here."

Ashamed I looked down at my food, suddenly not hungry. I swallowed the eggs in my mouth and mumbled an apology. I felt tears prickling my eyes but I refused to let them fall.

"Ugh. Don't try to cry and pull the pity card." A girl at the table accused.

I looked up in surprise.

Paul growled from the corner. "Shut up, Leah."

_This_ was my stepsister? She was glaring at me like she would like to take me out back and tear me in half. She looked like she was probably a werewolf too. She was tall and lean, her hair cut short. Her face was all hard angles and mean lines. She was the most hateful looking girl I had ever seen.

"Don't mind Leah, she's just a bitch," the youngest boy in the room commented. He sent me a reassuring smile. "I'm Seth."

I smiled back at him.

Jake pointed at the others. "That's Jared and you probably remember Quil and Embry. And we're gonna be late for school if we don't leave."

School? It was still August though. What were they doing in school already? I hadn't even thought about school yet. I thought I had a few more weeks. I was going to have to enroll. I would have to get my records transferred first. Charlie would probably have to do that though.

"Has Charlie left for work already? I'll probably have to have him enroll me." I seemed to remember him leaving really early when I was a kid.

Seth nodded. "Mom and Charlie leave early. So looks like you've got a free day!"

"Oh." I was going to be alone in the house all day. That sounded kind of nice actually.

The others started filing out of the house, grabbing back-packs on their way out. When I was finally alone I shut the door and locked it. When I turned around my heart tried to jump out of my chest. I clamped a hand over my mouth to hold in a scream. Paul was still standing in the corner, still glaring at me. And his body was even shaking a little.

"Lap dog?"

"What! I said that I _don't _want a lap dog. That's a good thing."

He cocked an eyebrow at me and pushed off the wall, stalking toward me.

I backed up against the door, fumbling with the lock behind me. "I've _been_ a lap dog, Paul. It's not fun to live for the will of another person alone. It's not good to obey someone else's commands and serve someone else. I don't want to turn you into that person and I'm sure not going to be the one issuing the commands. I'm not going to let you wait on me."

I swung the door open and held it open for him.

He stared at it stupidly while I stared at him.

"Paul. I don't know you well enough to be comfortable alone in this house with you all day long. Besides, don't you have school?"

"I graduated a couple years ago."

"Work?"

"The tribe pays the pack for keeping the vampires from killing us all. I thinks that's a pretty decent career. Don't you?"

I patted his arm, ushering him out the door at the same time. "That's great, Paul. Have a good day. See you later."

I started to shut the door but he spun around quickly and shoved a foot in the door.

"So, what you're saying is…you care too much about me to allow me to be used. Even if _you_ are the one using me?"

_Wait a minute. That's not what I said._

"Have a great day, Bella." Paul said with a big smile before pulling the door closed, yanking the handle right out of my hand.

I stomped my foot and screamed a little under my breath. _That's not what I meant at all! _


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**A/N: I want to thank all the wonderful people reviewing. No one has to review for me to keep posting but I really appreciate it when you do. This is the first time I've let anyone read my writing so it's nice to know someone actually likes it! This idea came to me 8 days ago. I'm not sure if it was because I was working on 1.5 hours of sleep or because I decided to walk my boys around our small-town carnival with zero oxygen. But apparently that's what it takes to jump start my creativity, hallucinations, whatever you want to call it. I've had a blast writing this so far. On to the fun.**

**Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to SM.**

PPOV

_You have to start being yourself around her._

Sam's words ran through my mind for the hundredth time that hour. But how was I supposed to do that? I'm an asshole. I couldn't be an asshole to Bella. She doesn't deserve that. She's been through too much. How am I going to win her over if I treat her like crap? For the past month everyone has walked on eggshells around the girl and she has done the same in return. No one was really getting to know her. She wasn't letting anyone inside her shell to the real Bella. But maybe she just needed more time. I could give her all the time she needed, no matter how much it hurt.

I felt a tug in my chest, which could only mean one thing. Bella was near. Fucking imprinting. I couldn't resist her. I could judge her distance based on the tightness in my chest. Just once I'd risked testing how far away from her I could get, but the pain was worth it. Call it a belated birthday present, even if she would never know about it. I'd been angry that she hadn't told me that it was her birthday, leaving me standing there present-less, looking like a jackass. That night Jacob and I took a little trip. My chest had hurt so badly within two hours I could barely breath, but over all I think that helped set the mood, give me that crazed fucker look I was going for.

Yep. The pain had most definitely been worth it. Just knowing that she was safe was enough for me. I loved her, or I would if she would let me. The memories of trying to fight the imprint were like memories I'd picked up from my pack brothers, there in my head but not really mine. I looked up, searching for her, knowing she was somewhere on the beach, or near. A smile played across my lips as I saw her walking ahead of me. Maybe this was my chance to spend some time with the girl.

The smile flickered. What was wrong with her? Her steps were unsteady. Her feet were dragging. Maybe she hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before? I sped up to a jog. She looked like she might pass out. She was even weaving a little. I watched as she paused before taking another step. Then she moved a foot forward and paused again. Her body froze and she threw her hands out for balance.

Fuck. She was going down and I was still too far away.

"Bella!" I started running. I wasn't going to make it before she hit the ground.

I saw her body go limp and fall to the ground. It happened in slow motion, like in horror films. Adrenaline pulsed through my body and I felt my arms and legs beginning to shake. I pushed against the urge to phase. I couldn't very well help her if I didn't have any hands. What good was I going to do as a wolf? Lick her back to consciousness? I needed to get her to help. I slid to a stop next to her, accidentally spraying damp sand all over her prone form in the process. _Good job, Meraz._ I ran my hands quickly over her, trying to find any injuries. She was so pale and she had the darkest circles under her eyes. She didn't look good at all.

_Shit. What do I do? Doctor. I think she needs a doctor._

I pulled her into my arms, trying to ignore the way part of me sighed with joy at the close contact. I ran as smoothly as I could, trying not to jostle her. I was about equal distance from my car and the La Push clinic. Should I put her in my car and drive for the Forks hospital or just go straight for the clinic? If I put her in the car she might wake up and then she'd make me take her home. I knew she wouldn't want to see a doctor. But if I got her into the clinic the doctors would take one look at her and they would make her stay. Clinic it was. They didn't close until noon on Saturdays so they should still be open for another hour or so.

I burst into the clinic, startling the receptionist and a man waiting in the lounge. The receptionist jumped up to get a better look at Bella. "What happened to her?"

"I don't know. We were walking on the beach and she just passed out."

The woman led me straight back to a room and told me to lay Bella out on the exam table. I didn't want to let her go so I kept her hand in my own and stared at her as the woman left to find a doctor. She looked so frail. I ran my eyes up and down her frame, stopping when I got to her stomach. Wow. She had developed a little baby bump sometime over the past four weeks and I hadn't even noticed. A grin pulled at my lips. She needed new clothes. She couldn't even button those pants anymore. I reached over and tugged her t-shirt down, covering her open pants, knowing that she wouldn't want anyone to see that.

"How are you Paul?" Dr Sweetwater asked as he walked into the room. "And who is the patient?"

"This is Bella Swan."

The Dr walked over and placed his fingers on her neck, feeling for a pulse. It looked a little too intimate. I had to back away from him, to resist the urge to tear his arm off. _The man is trying to figure out what's wrong with her you ass._

"Can you tell me what's been going on with her lately? Any medical issues I should be aware of?"

"Uh, well she's pregnant with twins. And she passed out before when she was stressed. Then she passed out on the beach a minute ago. That's all I know."

"Do you know how far along she is?"

"No." _You stupid fuck-up. You should know how far along your imprint is. This is the kind of thing you're supposed to know. You've known her a month. You don't even know her middle name. What good are you?_

"Was she stressed about anything in particular when she passed out today?"

"I don't know. She hasn't said anything lately. She won't talk about anything."

I began pacing as the doctor continued his examination. If I had been doing a better job, Bella wouldn't be in here right now. I had fucked up again. I couldn't do anything right. The only thing I was good at was killing vampires and scaring the shit out of people. Who's brilliant idea was it to have me imprint on Bella? What had she ever done to deserve a fuck up like me? That poor creature was wonderful and she was stuck with someone like me, a complete loser.

"I'm going to start an IV for fluids. Bella's severely dehydrated."

"What?" My heart started pounding. There was something actually wrong with her? I had really been hoping she was just tired.

"The babies are taking a lot out of her. I doubt she's taking care of herself like she should." That one was a personal blow and I had to fight the shaking. "I'm going to get some fluids in her, replace some of the nutrients those bundles of joy are stealing. Then I'm going to prescribe some pre-natal vitamins. We may have to admit her to the hospital but I want to see how she does with the fluids before I make that call. This is Chief Swan's daughter isn't it? I need to call him since she's a minor."

I stared at Bella in shock. What the hell had happened? She might have to go to the hospital? All of a sudden it was hard to breathe, like there was an elephant sitting on my chest. I had to struggle just to get the words out of my throat. "Is she going to be ok? Are the babies going to be ok?"

The doctor squeezed my shoulder. "They'll be fine, Paul. I'm going to run a few tests on them, just to be sure. I'll run some blood work and do an ultrasound so we'll get a good look at them. Ok?"

I nodded numbly as he walked out of the room. How could I let this happen? Had I just been fucking off for the past four weeks while Bella had been starving herself and the babies? Had I not been paying any attention at all? Sure, she didn't really want me to help her. But dammit, the girl needed help and it was my job to be there for her. So why hadn't I been there? I had patrols and I had that one thing I did with Jacob, but that left plenty of time to take care of Bella. Sam and Jared didn't seem to have any trouble keeping their imprints happy and healthy. Well, I was going to be there from now on, whether she wanted me there or not.

The next couple hours were a blur. I kept expecting Bella to wake up as they set up her IV and drew blood. I sure as hell would have woken up with people poking me like that. But she just lay there peacefully. Her eyes never even fluttered. She was either really sick or really tired. Maybe both. The circles under her eyes were incredibly dark. I wasn't sure how I had missed that unless she'd been covering it up with make-up. But then, I hadn't seen her as much lately either since she had started going to school. I had to run patrols at night so all the school kids could sleep. My only time to see her was after school while she was working on homework and on the weekends. But there were always people around. If she had wanted to see me I'm sure it would be much easier, but Bella seemed to intentionally surround herself with the others, making it difficult for me to get close to her. Seth and Jake were always there. Seth at least looked apologetic about it. I was going to have to wipe the smug look off Jake's face though. Hopefully permanently.

"What happened?" I had been so wrapped up in listening to Bella's steady heartbeat that I hadn't even heard Charlie enter the room. He was standing in the entryway, his face deathly pale as he took in her appearance.

I stood, reluctantly dropping Bella's hand. "She passed out. Apparently she's dehydrated. The doctor said she hasn't been taking good care of herself and the babies."

All the color drained out of Charlie's face.

Fuck.

OH.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

She hadn't told Charlie yet. I backed up, shielding her.

"The what?" His voice shook as the blood started to return to his face, flooding it in fact. His heart began to speed and I could smell the adrenaline flooding the room.

I held my hands up. "Now Charlie, Bella needs calm right now."

"You son of a Bitch."

_Oh shit. He thinks I did this…well yeah, you know you would have if you'd had half a chance and the fucker hadn't already beat you to it._

"Charlie," Dr. Sweetwater spoke up from the doorway. "Why don't you come out into the hall and we can discuss your daughter's condition? She's in a delicate state and you wouldn't want to do anything to jeopardize your grandbabies, would you?"

His mouth opened and closed a few times. He narrowed his eyes and pointed at me. "I'll deal with you later, Meraz."

Then he spun on his heel and followed the doctor out the door. I blew out a nervous breath and collapsed back into my chair, taking Bella's hand back. I rested my forehead against the cool skin of her hand, breathing in her smell. I loved the way she smelled. Loved the way her scent could instantly calm me.

"He's going to shoot you." Bella spoke quietly but I picked up her words without any trouble.

I nearly jumped out of my skin at her voice. The girl doesn't wake up being jabbed with needles or doctors and nurses talking over her but a handful of angry sentences from her daddy has her wide awake. Charlie hadn't even been that loud. In fact, now that I thought about it, his voice had been kind of scarily quiet the whole time. The beeping from the blood-pressure machine was louder than his voice.

"I'll heal." I shrugged off her words. And I would. I'd gladly let Charlie shoot me, for Bella.

Bella frowned at me. "There's no reason for him to be mad at you. I'll explain to him that you aren't the one at fault here."

Something in me rebelled at her words. So I argued back. "Maybe I want him to think I'm the one at fault."

"What?"

I nodded, daring her to argue. "Yeah. Maybe I'm the father."

She stared at me in shock. "But you aren't."

"Says who?"

"Says me!"

I shrugged. "I'll still tell him I am."

"Paul! But..what..why.." she continued to splutter for a few moments before she could pull her thoughts together. "What on earth are you hoping to accomplish by telling him that?"

I leaned forward, narrowing my eyes at her. "What, you want the real daddy to be a part of their life?"

_Not that he's going to be in any shape to try for a long fucking time._

She drew a startled breath. Quick as lightening her free hand reared back and slapped me. I sat back with a triumphant smirk. That's what I'm talking about. There was a little fire in Bella after all. I kept a firm grip on her other hand as she tried to pull it out of mine.

"So, he thinks I'm the dad. We let him keep thinking that." I glared at her and set my mind to the true topic at hand. "What the hell are you thinking? You have to take better care of yourself! Am I going to have to force feed you and put you on a strict water schedule?"

Her lips thinned. "I don't know what you are talking about."

"Look around, Princess. You're in the clinic. Do you want to know why? Because you let yourself get so dehydrated you passed out on the beach." I stated in a harsh tone. I had a feeling it was the only way to get through to her.

Her lips popped open and her eyes widened. Then her chin started to tremble and my heart clenched. _ Well fuck. I did it again. Every time I try to be myself I make her cry._

"Are the babies ok?"

I opened my mouth to answer only to realize that I didn't know _how _to answer yet. _Shit, I don't even know the results of the fucking tests yet. _I leaned forward, squeezing her hand, my heart breaking a little more with every tear that was leaking out of her eyes. "The doctor said they'll be fine. I just have to do a better job of taking care of you. I'm sorry I fucked up."

Her chin stopped wobbling and her brow furrowed. "What?"

I felt my own chin beginning to tremble. _What the fuck? Paul Meraz does not apologize and definitely does not cry. This is not happening. Well shit. That was not a tear that just fell out of my fucking eye. And that wasn't his buddy jumping out of the other one._

I ducked my head. _Stop crying you pussy!_

"Did you just apologize for me not taking care of myself?" Her tone was hard, the angriest I'd ever heard it.

What was her problem? Emily and Kim loved it when Sam and Jared took care of them. I raised my head to find her glaring at me. Shit, she really was pissed off.

"Look Paul, I already told you I don't want a lap dog. I was serious. I won't allow you to turn yourself into my servant. Do you understand? You aren't going to follow me around looking for ways to please me. I can take care of myself."

Another piece of my heart snapped off. Why wouldn't she let me love her? What was wrong with me? Was there a problem with our bond? Was it because she wasn't from our genetic background? Then why did I imprint on her in the first place? Fucking imprinting!

"I can't help it, Princess." I said through clenched teeth. Great. I really couldn't lie to this girl.

She looked startled. "What?"

"I'm going to be here for you, even when you don't want me. Even when you push me away. Even when you slap me. And seriously? We're going to have to teach you some self defense because that was one weak-ass move." I leaned forward so that I was in her face. "I can be whatever you need me to be, Honey. Your lover. Your best friend. Or the annoying big brother that won't stop pestering you. But I'm not going anywhere." I'd never been this close to her before. I couldn't help myself. I brushed my lips gently across hers.

I pulled back quickly as I heard Charlie walking into the room.

"Break it up. Haven't you gotten her into enough trouble?" Charlie grumbled unhappily.

"Dad," Bella started uncertainly.

Charlie waved her words off his eyes peering at her sadly. "How are you feeling, Baby?"

I squeezed the hand I still held tightly. I wasn't letting go of her unless she asked me to. Thankfully she hadn't thought of that yet. _Just stick to the plan. Don't tell him I'm not the dad. Why let that prick in Arizona claim them when I'm right here stepping up? _Why did it matter so much to me?

"I'm ok, Dad." Tears slipped from her eyes so I reached up to wipe them away with my thumb. She sent me a quick smile before looking back at Charlie.

"Dr. Sweetwater said your blood work confirms that you are undernourished and dehydrated."

_If you had just watched her better she wouldn't be in here. The babies would be safe right now and Bella would still be out there on the beach, happily exploring. Maybe even watching the waves roll in with you by her side. _I didn't even realize I was shaking until Bella placed her free hand on my shoulder and started speaking. "It's not your fault, Paul. I wasn't letting you help me. I promise I'll do better at letting you help from now on."

"This is not your fault," I growled. "It's my job to take care of you. And I'm fucking it up."

Charlie clamped a hand on my shoulder. "Ok. You need to go take a walk. Clear your head while I have a private discussion with my daughter. Give me fifteen minutes."

I wanted to tell him to go fuck himself. I had more of a claim on her than he ever would. She may be his daughter but she was my _world_. Bella gave me a small smile and nodded her head though and I had to do it. She wanted to talk to her dad. She had me by the balls just like the other imprints had their wolves. I turned and stalked out of the clinic, across the parking lot and into the woods. Thank fuck this place was close to the edge of the forest. I stripped with efficiency. I couldn't ruin my clothes. I was going right back in there as soon as Charlie's fifteen minutes were up.

I phased and was instantly surrounded. Everyone was there. Not there right next to me, but there in the wolf pack mind.

_How is she? _Sam asked.

_She's going to be ok. She hasn't been eating or drinking enough._ I quickly relived the entire event for everyone's benefit. I particularly enjoyed the small kiss, for Jacob's enjoyment. I couldn't hear his growl with my ears but I could hear it loud and clear with my mind.

_Do you think she's going to go along with letting Charlie think you're the father?_ Seth asked.

_Bella doesn't like to lie._ Jacob added, like he thought he knew my imprint better than I did.

I shrugged. _She doesn't want the real father involved._

_ Not that he could be now._ Jake chuckled.

Sam stopped Jake's line of thought. _That's enough. I at least want the minors here to have plausible __deniability__._

_ You make it sound like we killed him,_ Jake complained. _He's still alive. Maybe not exactly in his right mind, but alive._

_ Anyway, someone has to be the dad. I want to be. I'm going to be in her life anyway. Why not?_ I said, getting us back on track.

_ No one will let Charlie know the truth unless Bella does,_ Sam issued the command as an Alpha order.

_Thanks Sam._

_ Now go back in there. The fifteen minutes is almost up. Oh, and Paul, you're doing better about letting your real personality come through._

_ Yeah, I was a much bigger asshole today huh?_

Several of the guys snickered as I phased back and I didn't miss Jacob's growl either. He could go fuck himself if he didn't like it though. If Bella and I were the perfect match for each other then my asshole personality was what she needed in her life. I pulled my clothes on and rushed back toward the clinic with a lighter step.

I peaked my head into the room, hoping that Charlie was finished with his heart-to-heart. He was sitting in my spot, his arms crossed, staring at the wall. Bella lay on her side with her eyes closed. I could tell by her heartbeat that she wasn't sleeping. I'd listened to it enough earlier to know the difference. She may be resting but the girl wasn't asleep.

I stepped into the room and pulled another chair over next to Bella's bed, figuring Charlie would want to have a man to man discussion. With Bella right here next to us it would be sure to be awkward, but hey, maybe her presence would at least keep it from turning violent. Knowing that Bella was so close to me and that her body was struggling to cope with the demands of the babies, I couldn't handle not touching her. I kept my eyes on Charlie's and casually draped my arm across her legs, resting my hand on her thigh, between her knee and her hip. Nothing pervy. My hand was on top of the blankets. I just had to be linked to her somehow. I glanced up at her face to make sure that this was ok with her. Her eyes were still closed but I didn't miss the little grin on her lips. It was small and it was fleeting but it was there.

"Has the doctor said when they'll be letting her out?"

"He's going to come in soon to perform the ultrasound. As long as that's good we're free to go. I had him wait until you were back. I assumed you would want to see your children."

I squeezed her leg. _Thank you, Bella. _"Yes, Sir."

"You do realize I will kill you if you hurt my little girl, right Meraz?"

I stared at him for a long moment. "Haven't you heard how imprinting works, Chief? She's the only woman in the world now."

He looked into my eyes for a long moment before nodding.

I could hear the ultrasound machine being wheeled in so I motioned for Charlie to move his chair out of the way. Time seemed to move funny again as they set up and prepared Bella. I watched them moving in slow motion but then I blinked and everything was done. They were starting. My heart was pounding and I could feel myself getting clammy. What the fuck was my problem? I was acting like those were really my kids. Sure, Charlie was getting a good laugh at my expense but fuck this wasn't funny. I was supposed to be strong for Bella. Ok. That helped.

_Man up, Meraz. You are here for Bella. She needs you to be strong right now. Hold her hand or something. Comfort her. Be there for her. She__'__s probably freaking out right now._

I moved so that I could hold Bella's hand and I squeezed it tight as the tech plopped some kind of gunk on her exposed stomach. Then the woman held a little wand on the gunk and the twins' heartbeats grew louder.

"Oh, wow." Bella breathed.

I grinned down at her. This was the first time she was getting to hear them. I could hear them every time I was near her. I tend to forget that most people don't get to hear heartbeats as part of their everyday background. I glanced over at Charlie to see him staring down at his daughter with a wistful, sad expression.

"There they are." The tech announced.

I looked up at the screen and frowned in confusion. "That's them?"

The woman laughed as Bella's hand reached up and smacked me across the chest.

"Yes. That's them. At this point in gestation they're still pretty small and not very recognizable. See this right here? This is the sac. You're having identical twins. Let me just get some measurements here and then we'll get you unhooked and you can get dressed and go home."

Identical twins. A smile broke across my face. They would be gorgeous. And she would be so beautiful when she was nine months pregnant. I could picture her waddling around Charlie's place with a big belly, her hands rubbing circles on it. I could see little Bellas running around the reservation. Two little girls with braids and sundresses, running around bare-foot in the sun. Me teaching them how to fish. Me teaching them how to beat the shit out of any little boys who even dared to look twice at them.

"Paul, I need to get dressed now."

"Huh?"

I looked up as Charlie rolled his eyes and grabbed my arm. "I don't care what you've already seen. You aren't staying in here to help her dress while I'm around."

How long had I been standing there staring at Bella and grinning like an idiot?

Charlie closed the door and turned to me. He took one look at the expression on my face and rolled his eyes again. With a resigned sigh he said, "Paul, I know you've got a place of your own but would you like to start sleeping on my couch?"

**A/N: WTF? That whore muse just bitch-slapped me and stormed out! What the hell is her problem? Ok, so we were having a _slight_ disagreement about pulling one of my original stories into the twilight world. And it may have involved a few slaps...and some punches...and I may have let the c-word slip. Um, I wonder if she likes chocolate? Shit, I don't have any. Well, I have a few chapters drafted to edit and play with while we negotiate and try to compromise on this. See if that other story might work.**** And I would have to decide if it would be wolf vs vampire, Forks vs La Push, human vs. supernatural. There's a lot to consider.**** There also aren't enough characters right now and I don't want to overdo the abuse angle. A lot of my stories come from there though (write what you know people; writing is a great way to exorcise your demons). Otherwise I'm up shit creek for the last few chapters of this unless she agrees to come back.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**BPOV**

I looked out of the window at the gray, cloudy sky and groaned. Did the sun _ever_ shine here? And it was always so cold and wet compared to Arizona. Since I had arrived the temperature hadn't risen above seventy degrees once. I didn't have the wardrobe for this state. It was still breaking ninety degrees back in Arizona according to the Weatherchannel. I shivered as I glanced out the window again.

Paul frowned at me from across the table. "You cold?"

"No, the goosebumps are for decoration." I slapped myself mentally. Stupid hormones were making me cranky again.

He rolled his eyes and jumped up from the table, making his way quickly to his duffel bag. Paul was back to crashing on the couch, which made me wonder if he was homeless and rotated between friend's houses in an effort not to overstay his welcome in any one place. He rifled through the bag for a moment before pulling out a dark bundle of material and heading back into the kitchen. Not that I was watching him or anything.

The bundle of material came flying through the air, smacking me in the face as Paul sauntered past. I grabbed it reflexively before it could fall into my cereal bowl.

"That should keep you warm. You need some new clothes. Yours aren't really appropriate for the weather out here."

I glared at him as I pulled the hooded sweatshirt on, trying not to be obvious as I breathed in his scent. _Oh, he smells so yummy. All woodsy and manly._

"Thank you, Captain Obvious. I hadn't noticed that everything I own is too small and sleeveless."

His eyes narrowed right back at me. "I was just trying to be helpful."

"Maybe I don't need your help." _Shut up, Bella! He just gave you a warm shirt! Shut. Your. Mouth._

He smirked at me. "Then give me back my shirt."

Seth snickered and Leah grinned. I shot them both dirty looks. "Nope. You gave it to me. It's mine now."

"I could take it back."

"You'd take the shirt off a pregnant girl's back?"

His eyes started to burn. "I'd love to take the shirt off a certain pregnant girl's back."

"Ugh." Seth groaned as he stood quickly. "Come on Paul! There are certain barriers you do not cross in the presence of minors! I've lost my appetite."

My cheeks flamed as Leah followed her brother out the door. That left just me and Paul sitting in the house alone. Paul was still grinning at me but I had lost whatever crazy spark was encouraging me to play with fire. I stood quickly and headed for the sink.

"So what are you up to today, Paul?"

"I've got a little time today before I have to head off for work. So I'm going to put in a hand rail on the front porch."

I turned in surprise. "Work? You got a job?"

Paul seemed to pull in on himself a little, shifting nervously. "Yeah. I'm working for a construction crew. It's owned locally, here on the rez, so I can still work the patrols Sam needs me to work."

I frowned. "That's good, I guess." I chewed my lip. "It's just…is that a good idea? You're always so tired from the patrols. Are you going to get enough rest?"

His eyes shot up to mine in surprise. _Now he's going to think you're worried about him! He's not going to forget about that._

He smiled at me. "I'll promise to work in more naps if you will." He raised his eyebrows up and down quickly. "Maybe we could nap together."

I couldn't help the laugh that burst out. I had to stop this conversation though before it went any further than I was comfortable with. I snapped the dishtowel out, catching him in the stomach. "Go put in that handrail before I fall head first off that porch. I can't tell you how many times I've almost killed myself out there."

"Why do you think I'm putting in the fucking rail?" Paul muttered as he walked out of the room.

I puttered around the house, enjoying my Saturday morning cleaning. I even enjoyed listening to the sound of Paul installing the rail, muttered expletives and all. It was kind of nice to have someone around. When he wasn't around I felt lonely. Charlie was always either working or out fishing with Billy. Sue was always at the hospital, always volunteering to take extra shifts. All of the other wolves were out patrolling, sleeping, or with their imprints if they had one. I needed to get out of the house more, find some friends. Even going to the school I hadn't opened up enough to make any friends outside of the pack. But with the huge pack of boys surrounding me I hadn't had a chance to make any new friends in school. The reservation school was so small I had at least two or three of the boys in each class, so I was surrounded at all times. And lunch was utter chaos with them.

My mind drifted as I cleaned. Why would Paul feel the need to get a second job? Didn't he say that the council paid him and all of the other pack members? Maybe he was saving up for a place of his own? Maybe he didn't like having to crash on other people's couches. Perhaps he had dreams. Everybody had a dream. Curiosity started to eat at me. What was Paul's dream? What did he want to do with himself? I made my way to the kitchen and filled a glass with ice tea before walking back to the front porch.

Paul had stripped his shirt off. _Of course. I think they're all allergic to shirts._ It looked like he was about half-way done with the railing already.

"I thought you might be thirsty."

He sent me a grateful smile as he took the glass and drained it. Wow. He really had been thirsty. Now I felt kind of guilty for coming out here with ulterior motives. I should have brought the drink out here for the right reasons.

But the curiosity was killing me. I leaned against the door and watched him work for a moment before I couldn't take it any longer. "So, why did you get another job? Are you saving up money for something?"

Paul's movements slowed. He seemed reluctant to meet my eyes. Finally, he raised them and studied me face. "You really want to know?"

I frowned. "I asked, didn't I?"

He nodded toward my stomach. "Babies are expensive. I figure two will be twice as expensive as one. We're gonna need a lot of money when they come along."

I was floored. He planned on working himself to death to take care of my babies? Who said I was going to let him pay for them? Sure I let Charlie think they were Paul's, but I never once asked the man to take any real responsibility for them. And now he was going to work himself into the grave over it? For some reason this angered me. I didn't even stop to try to figure out why. "That's just stupid. This isn't even your responsibility. Why are you worried about paying for them?"

"It is my responsibility. I'm the father. Remember?" He growled.

I glanced around, checking to see if anyone had heard me deviate from our stupid plan to let Paul be the father. Why had I even agreed to that? Why was I _still_ agreeing to that?

He started advancing up the stairs. "Besides, you want to ask Charlie to do it? Huh? Do you know how little Forks pays their Chief of Police? Sue has to work extra shifts at the hospital already and Charlie is always working overtime. Have you seen their grocery bill? Have you noticed how often the guys are over here eating? Have you ever stopped to wonder why?" He waved a hand toward the forest. "Some of the guys were forced to go wolf and hunt for rabbits and shit cause they were so hungry. Their families can't afford to feed them and they aren't in on the secret so they don't even understand why the boys are starving all the time. Shit, Embry's Mom thinks he's a pot-head! Charlie told them to head over here when they were hungry. Eat anything they could find. He even keeps a waterproof container stocked with clothes under the porch for when the guys need them. Do you think it's fair to ask him to pay for our kids too?"

I opened my mouth but nothing came out. I hadn't even realized that money was tight for Charlie and Sue. I'd been wallowing in my own pain for so long that I hadn't looked at anyone else's life.

"Cat got your tongue?" He snarled.

I clamped my mouth shut. I turned and stomped into the house, slamming the door behind me. I wanted to be angry with Paul but I knew he was right. I was furious with myself. So I cleaned some more. I examined my behavior of the past couple months as I scrubbed the bathroom. _Oh boohoo, Bella. You were in a bad relationship. You survived. You were smart enough to get out when you had the opportunity. So why are you still living in it?_ I moved on to the kitchen and began mopping. I had that house sparkling by the time Paul came in to change for work. I even had lunch ready for him.

"I wasn't sure if you would have time to eat before you left, so I packed it up for you." I said, holding a paper bag out to him.

He stared at the bag. "You made me a sack lunch?"

I nodded. "And there's a snack in there too. In case they give you a break. And a couple drinks."

"Well…thanks." He looked kind of shocked that I would go out of my way to do something for him.

I was kind of shocked myself. So far I had done everything in my power to avoid him. Not that I was going to make this a habit or anything. I didn't want to give the man the wrong idea.

"You're welcome. I…I'm sorry for the way I acted out there. Thank you for being so responsible for the babies."

He nodded somberly at me. "Yeah. Um, I probably could have handled that better too. I'm sorry I was such an asshole."

"Actually, I think that's what I needed to hear," I admitted. "And I think that's how I needed to hear it."

He stared at me, clearly surprised. "Oh. Well...Glad I could help...I guess. Uh...I gotta go before I'm late for work. Have a good day."

"You too, Paul."

I had already cleaned the house and all of the laundry was kept up. So I pulled out my homework and worked on that for awhile at the kitchen table. That didn't take very long either. I still had a couple hours before I would need to start cooking dinner so I decided that the peacefully quiet house was an opportunity I couldn't pass up. I crawled into bed and covered up, sighing into sleep.

Shouting and laughing jerked me out of sleep. The light in my room was dim. I gasped and sat up in bed. How late had I slept? I looked frantically at the clock. It was seven o'clock! I was supposed to start cooking an hour ago. All of the guys must be starving. I climbed out of bed and headed for the kitchen, pulling my hair into a messy bun as I walked down the hall.

I stopped as I came to the living room though. Most of the pack were piled onto the couch, the recliner and the floor, all shoving pizza into their mouths and laughing about whatever they were watching on tv. The only ones missing were Sam, Jared, Leah and Paul.

Jake smiled when he saw me. Reaching out a hand, he shoved Quil off the couch and onto the floor. "Bella! Grab some pizza and have a seat."

Quil sent a mock glare at Jake as he scooted over to sit against the wall.

I chuckled as I grabbed a paper plate and a slice of pepperoni and sausage each. "What are you watching?"

"An American Werewolf in Paris."

"Is that supposed to be funny?" I asked as they all busted out laughing again.

"I don't think so." Embry responded as I made my way through their sprawling forms to the recently emptied seat.

"Thanks for the seat, Quil."

"Anytime Bella." He sent me a grin. "You know how I like to be the gentleman. Jake sure wasn't going to be selfless and offer his seat to the pregnant lady."

Jake grabbed a pillow and tossed it at Quil's head.

Quil snapped it out of the air and settled it under himself. "Thanks, Buddy. The floor was getting hard."

"You know, you're supposed to bring it back when you play fetch. Don't you get enough practice? We could probably find a tennis ball if you want to go out in the yard and play for awhile."

"Bite me."

"Sorry. You're not my type."

I bit into my pizza and grimaced as I watched the movie. How could these boys laugh at this? Ok, sure, they were the real deal and this had to be insanely ludicrous to them. But it was all a little too much for me. It was starting to make me queasy. Especially while I was trying to eat.

The front door opened and Paul walked in, covered in sweat and dust and looking completely worn out. A smile pulled at his lips. "Food!"

His smile widened when he glanced at my face. Then a small frown pulled at his brows before he glanced at the tv. "Ok, which one of you fuckers thought it would be funny to make Bella watch this while she was eating?"

They all looked at me. I could feel the blush fighting to overtake the green on my face. Suddenly there were scrambling for the remote, but none of them could find it. Paul moved toward the rear of the house muttering about what a group of retards they all were as couch cushions and magazines flew in the air.

"HA! I am triumphant!" Embry announced, holding up the remote like he'd just pulled Excalibur from the stone. He pointed it at the tv and flipped the channel, landing on some blockbuster action flick. It promised a well-worn plot line, lots of explosions, and even more swear words. Perfect for this lot. And I could finish my pizza in peace.

A few minutes later Paul plopped down onto the ground in front of me, leaning against my left leg, which was tucked up on the couch, my left foot under my right knee. I placed a hand on his head, damp from his shower, and tilted it back so I could see his eyes. He rolled them back to look at me, his eyebrows raised questioningly.

"Thanks." I said softly.

He smiled and I released his head, letting it fall back forward. But I kept my hand on his hair. It was so soft. I started running my fingers through it, not even thinking about what I was doing. It just felt nice. I nibbled on my pizza and mindlessly watched the tv, running my fingers from his temple to the base of his neck and back again.

At some point I felt his warm hand encircle my ankle. His fingers inched up under my yoga pants and his thumb began tracing a slow circle. I felt my whole body beginning to relax. You know, when Paul and I weren't yelling at each other, it was kind of nice to be next to him. Something in me just responded to him, and it always responded strongly, either in anger or…something else.

Paul sighed. "I forgot a drink." He pulled himself to his feet. "Need a refill, Bella?"

I closed my eyes, regretting what was about to happen. The night had been going so well. I forced my voice out, the picture of innocence. "Huh, I must have forgotten mine too."

I opened my eyes to see him narrowing his at me. "Do you want to end up in the hospital, Bella?"

I threw my hands in the air. "Yes, Paul. You caught me. I desperately want to end up back there with needles in my arms. There! My evil little plan is out in the open."

"Oh don't be such a drama queen!"

"Me? You're the one throwing a fit because I forgot a drink. Didn't you just forget a drink to? You're mad at me for doing the exact same thing you did! You big hypocrite!"

"Keep it down, we can't hear the bad script," Embry joked.

I turned my glare to him. "Was anyone talking to you? This is between my self-appointed baby-sitter and me. So if you want me to bake you another birthday cake ever again, you can keep your mouth shut."

His eyes widened. He shot up off Charlie's recliner like his ass was on fire. "I think I hear my Mom calling me." He hurried across the room and jerked the front door open. "Yep, I'm pretty sure I can almost hear her. See you guys later."

I felt the couch shaking and turned to see Jake laughing hard enough to move the heavy furniture. "You think this is funny?"

He clutched his stomach. "What's not funny about a boy who can tear a vampire apart running from a hundred pound girl?"

"Well remember that enchilada casserole I make that you just love? You're never eating it again."

His face fell. "That's just cold, Bella."

I pushed myself off the couch, which was harder than it should be for only fourteen weeks pregnant and stomped my way back to my bedroom. Stupid Paul and his stupid over-protective tendencies.

When I heard a soft knock on my door a few minutes later my heart leapt. Maybe Paul had come to apologize. I rushed over and opened it only to find Seth standing there with a nervous expression and a glass of milk.

"I'm sorry, he made me bring this to you." Seth said while shoving the glass forward.

"Oh for crying out loud."

I took the glass. I wanted to go back out there and pour it down the sink, just to prove a point. But darn it, I was thirsty and Paul was right. I needed to drink it for the babies.

"Thank you Seth." I started to close the door but jerked it open again quickly. "Don't you dare tell him I thanked you."

"He doesn't have to tell me," I heard from the living room. "Super hearing, remember?"

I gave a little scream of frustration as I slammed my door and locked it. And I screamed again as Paul's loud laugh filtered through my closed door.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**A/N: This is kinda short. Sorry 'bout that. Some...hmm...how shall I put it?...interesting stuff in it though. Fair warning here. I've been updating regularly. I've still got a good 7 chapters drafted after this, and a couple outlined after those but my sick leave is officially exhausted. So it's back to work I go tomorrow. And it's end-of-year closeout for accountants in my little world (fiscal year not calendar year) so 12-20 hour days for me are not out of the question over the next 2 weeks. Yippee! So, the updates may slack off, but they'll pick back up afterward. And the stress from work will drive me to my computer when I do have down time at home, which can only be good for this story.**

**Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight**

BPOV

"I ate the orange and the pancakes," I said through gritted teeth as I handed over my plate.

Paul narrowed his eyes and glanced at the glass in my hand.

I placed a hand on my hip, or I tried to. There was a large protrusion getting in my way.

"What? Did I _try _to hand the glass to you? No! So don't get your panties all bunched up yet, Mr. Mom."

Seth snickered behind me. I turned to him with a glare. "Oh no, you don't get to laugh. You ratted me out last night!"

Seth covered his grin with his napkin, quickly hiding his face. I wanted to scream. That little jerk was now spying for the big jerk behind me. I left one little bite of dinner on my plate and somehow Paul found out about it. As soon as he got home from patrol he actually came to my room with a late night snack and wouldn't leave until I ate it! Ever since Charlie let him start staying on the couch he'd been popping up every three hours with a snack and a drink, making me eat. And now he had Seth in on it! Seth was supposed to be on _my_ side! He was my step-brother.

"Don't laugh at me you little punk!"

Seth's shoulders shook harder and his cheeks started to turn red. I felt my cheeks beginning to burn with embarrassment and anger. My hands began to shake. Before I knew it I was tilting the glass and the white liquid was flying across the kitchen, splashing down his face. Seth and Leah drew in astonished gasps as Paul started laughing.

"You bitch!"

Paul was in front of me in a split second. Peering around him I saw that Leah stood shaking in front of her seat at the table.

Seth joined Paul between Leah and me, wiping his face with his napkin. "It's just milk, Leah. And I did kind of deserve that."

"What's going on?" Sam asked from the back door.

"Nothing." Leah shoved past the boys and shot me a death glare as she headed toward Sam.

That girl had never warmed up to me. I expected her to hate me for a couple weeks when I first arrived and then calm down. I had taken her place as the only girl in the family after all. It was only natural that she feel some jealousy over that. But she never calmed down. I'd been here for three months now and she still hated me with a passion. Had I stolen her boyfriend? Had Paul been in love with her before he imprinted on me? Was that why she hated me so much?

"You've got patrol, Leah."

"Where do you think I'm going, Sam?"

He rolled his eyes as she shoved past him.

Seth tossed his napkin in the trash. "I'm gonna take a shower. Then I'll come clean up the dishes."

"I can do the dishes." I volunteered.

Paul frowned at me. "No. You cooked. I'll do dishes."

"You'll patrol, Paul. Bella, Emily wanted to see if you would like to go shopping with her and Kim. She was going to get some more clothes for the pack and thought you might want to look for maternity clothes and maybe some clothes for the babies."

My hands immediately went to my belly. I was really putting my clothes through some stress. I hadn't worked up the nerve to go shopping. How was I supposed to ask my father to take me maternity clothes shopping? This was something a woman was supposed to do with her husband or boyfriend, the father of her children. If I was around the father of these babies I would probably end up cowering in a corner, not looking through clothes racks. Although, he did seem to take me seriously when I told him to never call again. So maybe I wouldn't have to worry about him anymore. Charlie was not ok enough with the whole pregnancy thing to go clothes shopping. Sue was great, but she was always working at the hospital so I still hadn't gotten the chance to really get to know her.

Paul would go with me if I asked him. I knew he would. But I was trying not to lean too hard on him. He would gladly be my crutch if I let him. _Crutch? That man would be my wheelchair. _ But I couldn't do that to him or to myself. I had to learn to walk on my own. I would not be a good mother if I didn't learn how to take care of myself. I would be Renee if I couldn't take care of myself. I had to be a better mother to my babies than she was for me. I would learn from her mistakes.

I sent Sam a smile, aware that the men were still waiting for me to respond. "Sure. That sounds nice. Let me just clean up this mess and I'll get ready."

"Seth said he'll do it." Paul growled.

Sam rolled his eyes again and walked out, leaving us to another of our arguments. Everyone was used to watching Paul and me argue by now. That's all we did. Even Charlie was used to it. He used to try to intervene. It worried him at first. After weeks of watching us fight he had come into my room and asked if I was sure I wanted to have children with this man. If he wanted me to have Paul move back to his own place. Until that conversation I hadn't even realized that Paul had his own house. But if Paul had his own place and chose to sleep on Charlie's couch just to be near me, then I must really be important to him. I felt kind of bad about the idea of forcing him to keep distance from me if I meant that much to him. He wasn't forcing me to get close to him after all. What did it hurt to let him stay close enough to see me and make sure I was taken care of?

_And argue with you twenty-four seven. _

_ We don't argue all the time. _ I reminded myself. _No, It's more dangerous when you aren't arguing. _When Paul and I were close and not arguing there was tension of a different sort flying between us. I, of course, refused to acknowledge the tension.

"I'm perfectly capable of washing dishes, Paul."

"I know that, Princess. So is Seth. The boy said he'd do it. Now let him do it. You need to take care of yourself for once."

"But he's busy taking a shower. I can have them done by the time he's out. Besides, he was patrolling all night. Which reminds me. Didn't Sam say you need to be out patrolling with Leah?"

My heart clenched. I didn't like the idea of them out patrolling together. What if she was being a bitch because she was jealous? What if she tried something while they were alone together? He said the imprint business made him see only me, but what would happen if a girl threw herself at him? Would he be able to resist? Especially after everything he had told me about his past? _Why do you care?_

Paul grabbed my arm and turned me toward the bedrooms. "Just do what you're told. Go get ready to shop."

Something in me snapped. A haze of red covered my vision and suddenly I was back in Phoenix, Randy's hand digging into my arm instead of Paul's gently encircling it. I grabbed the closest thing to hand and swung around, connecting with his head.

I jerked my arm out of his grasp as it loosened. "You cannot tell me what to do! You can't grab me and push me toward my room and make me behave like a good little girl! I will not follow orders! I will not be a submissive little girl!"

Paul was staring at me with wide eyes, a trickle of blood making its way down his temple. The wound had healed so fast there wasn't even a mark to show where I had broken the skin. Sue's vase lay shattered at his feet, flowers Charlie had brought home for her just the day before scattered on the floor.

I covered my mouth with my hands, shocked at what I'd just done.

Seth came running out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist. "Bella! Are you ok? Paul! Go outside! Bella, back away slowly."

Paul finally moved. He sent Seth an annoyed look. "Shut the hell up, Seth. I'm not going to phase." He turned back to me, his tone instantly turning soft. "Are you ok, Bella?"

I stared at him with wide eyes, nodding mechanically. I moved my trembling hands away from my mouth slowly, nervously touching the now healed spot on his head. "I'm so sorry."

_ Did that seriously just happen?_

Paul gestured toward the couch. "Let's sit down for a minute. Seth, can you phase quick enough to let Leah know I'll be a couple minutes late?"

"Yeah." Seth said quietly.

He slipped out the back door while I walked shakily to the couch. What had just happened? I had exploded. And I hurt Paul when it happened. I looked down at my hands. I hurt another person with my own hands. I was violent. Like Randy. Tears slid down my cheeks. I was a monster, like Randy.

A warm hand slid across first one cheek then the other, wiping my tears away. "I think I understand now, Bella."

I looked up in surprise. What was he talking about?

"He didn't just hit you. He controlled you. Didn't he? He made all your decisions for you. He wouldn't let you have your own opinions, make up your own mind, anything. Right?"

I nodded slowly.

Paul took a deep breath and nodded. "Ok. We can deal with this. I didn't understand. I've been trying to be the kind of guy the other imprints needed. The loving door-mat."

I couldn't help but snort at that. "Uh. When exactly was this? When you were shoving food down my throat? Or when you were telling me what I needed to do? You aren't exactly door-mat material, Paul."

Paul laughed. "Yeah. I don't think I was made to be one. You know what I'm good at? I'm good at tearing shit up. I'm great at that."

I frowned in confusion. How was that going to help me?

"You're shopping today and I'm on patrol. Tomorrow we really are starting that self-defense."

I snorted. "I didn't seem to have a problem with it today."

Paul smiled. "You started out great." Then he frowned. "But you stopped. Never stop. You keep going till the fucker's down."

"Um Paul, I think you're forgetting something here." I placed my hand on my belly. It was really starting to protrude now. Because of the fact that there was more than one baby my sixteen week belly looked more like a twenty week belly.

His gaze softened as his hands came out to reverently stroke my belly. He raised his eyes to mine. "I think you're right. We have to protect them too. I'm sure there are things Jake can teach you as soon as you're not in this delicate condition."

"Wait, Jake? Not you?" Did he not want to teach me himself? A feeling of rejection shot quickly through me.

Paul's eyes drilled into mine, his expression turning into something new, something I had only caught glimpses of before. His hands stilled on my belly and his eyes seemed to be sucking me in. "Bella, if I spend that much time that close to you I'm going to end up teaching you something, but it's not going to have anything to do with self-defense."

I swallowed. _Don't ask. Don't ask. You know what he's talking about. Don't fall for it stupid._

"What would it be?" I asked, a little short of breath.

_Ugh. Moron._

Paul's lips twitched up as he leaned toward me.

_He's going to kiss you again!_ He had only kissed me that one time, months ago in the clinic. That one little brushing of lips had sent electricity through my whole body. It had been the most embarrassing moment in my life. The best kiss ever and there I was hooked up to a heart monitor for the whole world to hear. And then my father had to walk in, to make things that much more embarrassing. My stupid heart was still pounding away when Charlie made Paul walk out of the room and Charlie had insisted on the talk about responsibility and how disappointed he was in me. The whole time Charlie had been lecturing me about how much harder my life was going to be as a teenage mother, all I could do was think about the look in Paul's eyes as he insisted that he was the father. I could easily shut Charlie up by telling him that I was raped. I mean, it was by my boyfriend, but it was rape none the less. But that look in Paul's eyes kept my mouth glued shut. He'd looked angry, and like he almost _believed_ that he was the father. How crazy was that? And that kiss, it had been so small, just a mere brushing of lips, but the things it had done to my heart, to my body. It had never been like that with Randy. I found myself wanting to go along with his request, make him happy. I couldn't even concentrate enough to appreciate the way Charlie was telling me that he had wanted better things for me but that he still loved me and he would always support me. I had probably sounded ungrateful when I murmured a simple sorry and thank you, when really I was just so distracted.

And here I am again, my traitorous heart pounding away, yearning for him to just lean over that extra inch and do it again. This didn't even make sense. I should be even more scared of Paul than I had been of Randy. He clearly had even more ability to hurt me than Randy ever did. Paul could turn into a freaking wolf. An honest to goodness wild animal. He was volatile. But...somehow I knew that he wanted to protect me. He claimed that I was his everything. It sounded so crazy. But, the longer I was here, the harder it was to doubt him. He did seem very attentive to me after all, and that was with me pushing him away as hard as I could. And even when I pushed him, even when he was angry with me he never threatened me. Even when he was angry, I didn't find myself flinching away from him now. But was I really ready to accept that I was his soul mate? Was I ready to be in a relationship? _Ugh. I don't know what I want. _

He was still staring at me, just an inch from my face, his eyes fixated on my lips. _You **do **know what you want, you want him to kiss you!_ The little voice in my head whispered.

"Would you two just get a room already?" Seth teased as he walked by, heading back toward the shower.

"I'm gonna kill that little cock-blocker," Paul muttered.

I laughed and before I could talk myself out of it I leaned forward and pecked his lips quickly. He looked at me in surprise as I used his shoulders for leverage to push my body off the couch. "Come on. You're supposed to be on patrol right now and I have to get some maternity clothes. I'm sick of wearing the pack sweat pants."

**A/N: YankeeGirlNJ asked in a review what happened between Charlie and Bella in the clinic in Chapter 5. Having Bella think about the conversation was the best I could come up with Hon, without going into a flashback or redoing the scene from another POV (both methods I hate). Hope it's good enough. At least I tried, right?**

**Anybody else ever been caught completely off-guard by something you've just done? Find yourself doing something you swore you'd never do? Doing something you thought you'd never be capable of? I sure have. **


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**A/N: Again, super short. It's that damn missing muse. Feel free to track her down for me. A few reviewers have asked questions in their reviews, which got me thinking so I've had some things to go back and work into the drafted chapters I'm polishing up. So I welcome all questions. Please ask me anything. If you don't want it to show up in the review section of the story, feel free to go to my profile page and just send me a message that way.**

**Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight**

BPOV

"So how's it going with Paul?" Emily asked with a conspiratorial smile.

I shot her a look. What exactly did she want to know? Kim was smiling too. They both had a mischievous glint in their eyes. "What exactly are you asking Emily?"

Emily stepped closer and shot a look either way, to make sure no one was close enough to eavesdrop. "Isn't it hard to find alone time at Charlie's house? Why don't you two just move into his place? Especially with the babies coming?"

I stepped back, shocked. Well, these two sure seemed to think our relationship was much further along than it was. I chewed on my lip as blood rushed to my cheeks. For the thousandth time since climbing into Emily's car I had to force myself to focus on what was happening around me. My mind kept trying to drag me back to the couch. Back to the sensation of my lips touching his, no matter how brief it had been. How much should I tell them? I desperately wanted some real girl friends to talk with. Leah was out and Emily and Kim seemed to be my only options left.

"Paul and I aren't really like that."

Emily's eyebrows shot up and Kim gasped.

"But, you've been together for months now."

By together I knew they meant imprinted. I felt a rush of frustration at their assumption and quickly turned away from their prying eyes. What? Because we were imprinted I had to jump into his bed? I had to immediately hand myself over to him mind, body and soul? Is that how this was supposed to work? I turned back to the rack of maternity clothes and began sorting through them again, trying to hold my tongue in check.

Emily placed a hand on my shoulder. "Do you want it to be like that with Paul?"

I bit my lip harder. Did I? I shrugged my shoulder nervously, remembering the two small kisses we had shared. "I don't know?"

Kim moved to my other side and leaned in, speaking quietly. "No one can love you like your imprint."

Emily nodded. "He'll be devoted to you for life."

Leah's image popped into my mind. "So, say another girl comes along and throws herself at him…he wouldn't be interested?"

Emily sighed sadly. "The girl would deserve your pity. He would be almost cruel in turning her down. Sam was dating a girl before he imprinted on me. He has to see her all the time but he feels nothing for her. He feels horrible for hurting her but he just doesn't care about her like that anymore." Emily looked down with a frown. "It's hard on the whole pack. Trust me when I say Paul will be faithful to you for life."

Kim chuckled. "Besides, Paul never had a serious girlfriend before. He was more of the one-night stand type."

I had a quick flash back of the first few weeks of getting to know Paul. He had followed me around Charlie's house trying to talk to me every chance he got. He told me details I never wanted to know about him. How often he drank. How many girls he slept with. The parties he had gone to before he started phasing. Far too many details. He had never mentioned Leah, but I thought that it might be out of self-preservation. We did all live in the same house after all. Or perhaps I was being paranoid about her. Maybe I was just being paranoid about a lot of things.

I frowned and rubbed my stomach. "It's hard after what Randy did. It's kind of scary, you know, having that kind of power over someone else after being so powerless. And it seems like a lot of responsibility, to be someone's perfect soul-mate."

Kim laughed. "Paul did a horrible job explaining this all to you, Bella. Did he fail to mention that it works both ways? That he's also your perfect mate?"

That floored me. "He's what?"

She nodded with a smile. "He's your perfect mate too. Of course he doesn't have to be your lover if that's not what you want. He could be your best friend. Although why would you waste all that yumminess on a best friend? Trust me, you can get a best friend anywhere. Hell, me or Emily can fill that position. We'll even take turns. The man is devoted to pleasing you. Do you hear what I'm saying? You'll want him in your bed. Right Emily?"

Emily's beautiful smile spread across her face. "You will definitely want him in your bed."

My brain stalled on all the ramifications of that thought for a second as I felt the blood flowing to my face. Oh. Well, yes. I could see the advantages there. Especially with the way that we always fought.

Emily and Kim must have had the same thought because their eyes met and they grinned. Emily spoke up. "And Bella and Paul would get to have make up sex too. I'll have to try to pick a fight with Sam, see if it's worth it."

I held my eyes firmly in check on the clothes, refusing to glance at her facial scars. Seth had explained where the scarring had come from. Sam had gotten a little too angry while Emily had been standing a little too close. Of course he would regret it until the day he died but regret didn't wash the scars away. It was a good visual reminder to me that Paul was capable of hurting me, regardless of how many times he said he wasn't.

"This top is cute," Kim announced as she held up a wrap around shirt.

I looked it over and nodded, adding it to our growing pile. Thank goodness Phil had given me a bank card before I left Arizona and ordered me to use it when I needed it. After Paul's little lecture I couldn't bring myself to ask Charlie for money to buy clothes and I sure didn't have any to spend. Maternity clothes weren't cheap. I was only looking in the clearance section but I was starting from nothing so I had to buy a lot. I also had to do my Christmas shopping. Christmas was just a few weeks away, and I didn't know when I'd have a chance to get back to town.

"He's really excited about the babies. He's going to be a great Dad." Kim assured.

I eyed Kim. Had Paul talked to her personally about this or was this something she had heard from Jared? And why did I feel like ripping her hair out at the very thought of Paul talking to her personally about anything?

Emily nodded. "It's really nice of you to let him do this for you. That's an imprint thing. Those babies are part of you so he feels connected to them. He feels like their father."

Kim smiled. "I can't wait until Jared and I can start having kids."

Emily sighed. "I just wish I could talk some sense into Sam. We imprint to pass on the genetic traits. But he wants to wait until things settle down a bit. He doesn't like how boys are phasing younger and younger. Did you know now Collin and Brady look like they might phase?"

I looked between the two, completely lost. "What do you mean?"

Emily leaned in, whispering. "Something is going on. Something big, or we wouldn't have so many in the pack. There aren't enough Cullens for this many wolves. Something big is coming."

Fear slammed into my heart. Paul. Paul was in the pack, he was running patrols and I knew he'd taken down a couple vampires since I'd arrived. He loved telling me about the take-downs as soon as he came home. He was always so excited about it when he got the chance to tear apart a leech.

Emily must have recognized the look on my face. She smiled and patted my shoulder. "I know. It's scary. But they're good at this kind of thing. Paul will be fine. And the benefit of having such a large pack is he'll always have his brothers there at his back."

Kim smiled. "We'd better finish up here so we can head to the food court. We're already late for your mid-afternoon snack."

I growled low in my throat, a habit I had apparently picked up from hanging around with Paul and the boys. "You have to be kidding me."

Kim giggled and shook her head. "Paul made us promise to feed you every three hours if we were out that long."

Emily reach into her bag and pulled out a water bottle. "And you have to drink one of these at every snack time."

I stared at the two of them in dismay. "You traitors."

The two women laughed. "It was the only way he would let us play with you."

I couldn't help the smile that started to tug at my lips. "That man is insane."

"He just cares."

"An insane amount." I amended.

Emily pushed the cart toward the register. "It's called love, Bella. You'll have to get used to it. Paul's not going anywhere."

Her words scared me. "You think he really loves me?"

Kim and Emily glanced at each other before stopping the cart and grabbing an arm each. Emily leaned in. "Bella, of course he does. He loves you more than he loves himself."

I began to shake.

"What's wrong, Bella?" Kim asked, a worried expression on her face.

I wiped my eyes, looking around the store, anxious that I would end up making a scene. "I don't know how to love him back!"

They stared at me in shock.

"All we do is fight! Every time we're together we end up arguing about stuff. I don't even know why we do it. He says something and I just get so angry and then we just keep going back and forth. And I'm so scared to let him do anything for me. I don't want to turn into Randy. I can't let him become my servant! I can't let him put me up on some pedestal."

Emily chuckled. "Well I'm sorry to disappoint you but you're already up there and there isn't anything you can do to make him take you down."

"But Bella, you don't have to turn into Randy either," Kim reassured. She probably didn't even know who Randy was. Unless Jared had told her. And come to think of it, he probably had. Paul mentioned that the guys usually shared everything with their imprint.

"How do I keep from turning into some power hungry monster who enjoys having that kind of control over another person?"

Emily patted my arm. "Easy. You stop focusing on what he can do for you and you start focusing on what you can do for him."

Kim nodded. "Think about it. They spend all their time taking care of the entire community. Who takes care of them? Paul doesn't have a family. His mother died and his dad took off before he was even born. He's been alone a long time, Bella."

"I don't know how to do that." I lamented, still a little freaked out.

Wait.

Maybe I did.

I said I wouldn't make a habit of it, but I hadn't once missed packing a snack and lunch for Paul when he worked the construction job. When I found out that he liked a particular meal I made, I found myself cooking it more often. _Holy Crow, I've already started taking care of him. When did I start to care about him?_

"Just watch Charlie and Sue. They're still in the lovey-dovey stage. I'm sure you can pick up some good tips from them. Although, your father's not very good at open displays of affection."

I snorted. "No kidding. You should see how red he turned the one time I caught him hugging Sue. And that was just a hug. You'd think I'd walked in on them going at it on the kitchen table."

**A/N: Any suggestions for twin baby names? They're identical so either both boys or both girls.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Disclaimer: Twilight, blah, blah SM**

PPOV

I leaned against the edge of the kitchen counter, so I could speak quietly enough for Sue to hear me without my voice traveling down the hall. My stomach was tied up in knots. _What if Bella doesn't like this idea?_ "I want to do something for Bella today. Before I have to go in to work this afternoon."

Sue glanced up from flipping the pancakes. "What did you have in mind?"

"Do you think she'd like miniature golf? I thought we could get some of the pack together, just the ones not needed for patrol this morning. They never get to just play around anymore, you know? Be kids. Neither does she. I thought she might enjoy just hanging out. She doesn't leave the house except to go to school or go grocery shopping."

Sue sent me a big smile. "That sounds like a lovely idea, Paul. I'm sure she would enjoy that."

"You don't think it's too cold?"

"She can wear a jacket, and with the heat you guys will be throwing out, she should be fine." Sue assured.

"Sweet!" Seth exclaimed.

_Now I just have to get the girl to fucking agree to one suggestion I make._

"No promises," I warned him quietly. "Sam has to sign off on this. And so does Bella."

I stepped outside and made the necessary phone call. Thankfully my brain kicked in fast enough for me to call Emily's cell and have her talk Sam into agreeing to the plan. That woman would do anything to make life a little easier on Bella. She had developed a soft spot for my imprint. Leah and Quil had to stay on patrol while Sam stayed behind to keep an eye on Colin and Brady. But everyone else was free to enjoy themselves for the morning. I quickly called around to the others, letting them know the general plan and when I would like to leave.

As soon as I walked back into the kitchen I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Bella was sitting at the table, still in her pajamas. She never came to the kitchen in her fucking pajamas. Her hair was up in a messy bun, pieces falling down randomly around her head. She had sleep lines on her cheeks. She even sent me a little warning glare, letting me know I better not say one word to her. It was the hottest fucking thing I'd seen all week.

_You're getting a little desperate there, Meraz._

Ever since she'd kissed me two weeks earlier I'd been looking for an opportunity to get a repeat performance. But I couldn't get to her! Shit kept coming up. First Emily and Kim kidnapped her for the rest of the fucking day. They held her hostage all day, through lunch, afternoon snack, and even dinner. By the time she came home the poor girl was wiped out. She didn't even have the energy for a shower. It seemed like every day since then I was out on patrol before she even woke up and had to go straight to work on the construction site after. When I got home she was helping Seth with his homework. I swear the fucker was laughing at me. I've seen the kid whip through his English work before. And suddenly he needed help every night? Jake had to have put him up to it. I was going to beat the shit out of that fucker.

Then we had also had to take turns with the shitty babysitting job of watching Collin and Brady. At least they were almost always together. And the way they had been acting the past week, we wouldn't be doing that much longer either. Their one-on-one basketball games weren't exactly friendly anymore. I kept expecting one to pull a shank on the other any minute the way they were eyeballing each other. _Not fucking long at all now_. The shaking had already started. _It's gotta be fucking rough having twin boys_. _Ha! Dodged a bullet there. _

_ Wonder if identical twins runs in Bella's family or the fucker's?_

I eyed her curiously. I might find myself with twin boys after all, down the line.

She caught me looking. "What?"

_Do not react to the snarky tone. Do not react to the snarky tone._

"What yourself? Didn't feel like getting dressed today?"

Seth snickered, but wisely kept his head down and his mouth shut.

Before I knew it was coming, Sue smacked me against the back of the head with the rolled up newspaper.

"Bad dog." She reprimanded.

Bella's mouth dropped open. She was silent for a moment before a laugh tumbled out. Seth laughed so hard he fell out of his seat. I rubbed the back of my head, pretending to feel the pain.

_Thank you, Sue._

I started speaking before Bella could remember that we were about to start yet another argument. "All the guys are going to play miniature golf this morning. They don't get enough opportunity to play around. They really wanted you to come along. Can you?"

Her smile immediately froze. "Um."

I looked away, giving her time to think. _Come on, Bella. This will be fun!_

I could see Seth holding his breath. I could almost hear him mentally begging Bella to say yes. The poor kid probably hadn't gotten off the reservation since he first started phasing. Come to think of it, most of us hadn't.

"I'll be going along," Sue stated.

_ You will?_

"Someone is going to have to pay for all the pizza these boys will eat. And I know they aren't going to." She said with a laugh.

Bella hesitated, but I saw her little head nod out of the corner of my eye. My heart lifted. Yes! A day out with Bella. And half the fucking pack. And Jake. Fucker. But Bella would be there.

"When do we leave?" She asked nervously.

I glanced at the clock. "Half an hour?"

Her eyes widened. "Half an hour! I have to be ready in half an hour? I can't get ready that fast!"

"Babe, you look fine."

Sue started laughing as Bella's expression became incredulous. "Paul. I'm in my pajamas. I haven't even brushed my hair yet. I haven't brushed my teeth yet. I haven't eaten breakfast yet."

"Oh. Right." I thought fast. _Fucking moron. She looks great to you, but you don't want anyone else seeing her like this._ "Well. You look really pretty with a ponytail, so your hair won't take long. You're gorgeous anyway so it's not like you need makeup. And I like those khaki pants and that one red shirt with the little white flowers that kinda wraps around, you know? What? Why are you guys looking at me like that? What?"

_What? What the fuck are they looking at me like that for?_

Tears came to Bella's eyes. Panic shot through me. "What! What did I do wrong?"

I shot a look to Seth for help, but he gave me a blank look and a shrug. He didn't know either.

I turned to Sue. "What did I do?"

Sue patted me on the arm and smiled before taking her plate to the sink to start washing it. I turned back to Bella just in time to catch her as she wrapped her arms around me. _Fuck. I don't even care __**why**__ she's hugging me. I'll figure it out later and make sure I do it again. _

"You pay attention to my clothes? And my hair?"

I rolled my eyes. "Of course I do. They're on you."

She pulled back. "And you like that outfit?"

I nodded. "That's my favorite. I mean, that I've seen so far. It looks really good on you."

"You think I'm pretty without makeup?"

I snorted. "You're beautiful always."

Suddenly she pulled away and hopped back to her seat, a bright smile on her face. On one hand, I was happy that she was so happy. On the other, I wasn't holding her anymore so I was feeling sorry for myself. _Fucking pussy._

She did stay happy through breakfast though. We were making progress. I could even hear her humming as she got ready. Embry and Jared noticed as they walked in the door too.

"Good morning?" Jared asked with a grin and a wink.

_Get your mind out of the gutter, Fucker._

"Yeah. She's in a good mood." I said with a proud smile. _I put that fucking smile on her face. It's about fucking time. _

Seth snorted. "Yeah. Cause he knew what was in her closet."

I reached around and smacked the back of his head, much harder than his mother had smacked me with the paper. "Shut the hell up, Fucker. Made her happy, didn't I? You get to go play miniature golf, don't you? Or do you want to see if Quil wants to trade places? Huh?"

Seth moved over to Charlie's recliner and Embry and Jared took up the empty slots on the couch. Bella walked in wearing the outfit I had mentioned. I think my eyes glazed over. What the fuck was it about a pregnant chick that made me so horny? Or was it because it was this pregnant chick? Or was it because it was just this chick and she was close by and it had nothing to do with the pregnancy at all?

Jared nudged me. "Breathe man."

_Right. Oxygen is vital._

She walked toward me with a little smile, her hair swaying back and forth in the ponytail, and I was fucking hypnotized. It wasn't until she was a foot in front of me that I realized she didn't even have a place to sit. I started to scoot forward.

"Shit. Sorry. Let me move so you can sit down."

"Whipped," Embry shot from the other side of Jared.

Her little white hand darted out and pushed me back. "Don't worry about it."

Before I could argue she had plopped herself on my lap. My heart rate shot through the roof. Jared and Embry chuckled next to me. Fuckers could laugh all they wanted. But my girl just voluntarily sat in my lap. She had been running from me for fucking _months_ and she just _sat in my lap. _If that didn't say trust, what did?

_Fuck miniature golf. Let's stay here all day._

"I thought we were supposed to leave now?" Bella asked.

"Just waiting on Jake." Jared answered, because I was too caught up in how fucking good she smelled to think.

Bella gave a little grunt of frustration. "Jake's coming?"

My eye's shot up to hers in surprise. I could feel Jake and Embry shifting to look at her too. What was this about? Had he done something to make her uncomfortable? To anger her? _That's it. Fucker's dead. _

"Yeah. Why?"

Her fingers started tracing patterns on my arm. I tried to hold onto my anger, I honestly did. But dammit, she was touching me! Caressing me!

"He's just so annoying lately! He hasn't really done anything. But I know he still wants more than friendship. It just makes me sad that I'm going to end up hurting him. You know?"

I swallowed. She had her whole hand on my arm, slowly moving it up and down. _Focus. Jake is annoying your imprint…your imprint is fucking caressing your arm. Fuck that feels good. Focus on what she's saying dumb ass, not what she's doing!_

"Do you want me to talk to him?" _Shit, did I just sound breathless?_

In the background I could hear that Jared, Embry and Seth were laughing so it was a pretty safe bet that, yes, I sounded like the complete jackass that I felt like.

"Hey guys, ready to go?" Jake called as he stepped in the door.

Jake's eyes somehow zeroed in on Bella and me immediately. Probably because the fucker always looked for Bella first whenever he walked into Charlie's house. Made me want to cut his damn eyes out. Hurt flashed quickly across his eyes as he took in Bella's position, my arm cradling her back, her hand, which was _still_ caressing my arm. Glee shot through me. _That's right, Fucker. She's mine. Always will be._

"Jake! We were waiting for you. Let's go." Bella greeted him warmly, but with an odd little note of satisfaction in her voice.

It took me half a second, but then the light bulb went off. _Holy FUCK. My girl__** planned**__ that __whole thing! She __**wanted**__ Jake to walk in on us being all cuddly._ _Shit. She's almost scary sneaky._ Disappointment hit me then. _Fuck. Then she didn't want to sit with me. _My thoughts went swirling. Replaying over the events in my mind as quickly as I could, I analyzed it all. _Wait a fucking minute. She didn't know Jake was coming until after she sat down. So, she may have taken advantage of the situation. But that's all. Fuck. She can take advantage of me anytime she wants! Preferably often._

I eased her off my lap, providing support for her as she stood. She was only eighteen weeks along now, but she was measuring at closer to twenty-four weeks. It looked like she had a basketball shoved under her shirt.

When I stood my heart rate shot up again as Bella reached back and grabbed my hand in hers. Yeah, she was probably using me to get to Jake. But who gave a shit? Girl was holding my hand. I'd invite Jake over every day if that was what it took. Fucker was about to become my best friend if Bella suddenly became hands-on anytime he was near.

Jake got another disappointment when we loaded up to head to Port Angeles. Bella, Seth and I all piled into Sue's car while Jake was stuck with Jared and Embry. Did he honestly think Bella was going to ride with him instead of me? That boy had shit for brains. Bella even surprised me by keeping her hand in mine all the way to the city and Jake wasn't even anywhere to see. _Suck that Jacob Black_. I felt like I was in middle school with my first crush, my mom driving me to a date. Every time I would glance at her she would catch me looking and her cheeks would turn the prettiest color of pink I had ever seen. But she didn't pull her hand away.

She really seemed to open up at the miniature golf. Bella was the worst fucking athlete I had ever seen. I don't think she would have been any good without the twins getting in the way either. Of course, I gave her the benefit of the doubt, and assured her that they were throwing off her balance. But she was fucking awful. She loved it though. She laughed and teased while the rest of us did our best to hit the balls softly. Seth couldn't get the hang of it though. Poor kid kept hitting the golf balls too hard.

"You know, young man. You should really look into a driving range." An older man said from behind us.

We all turned to see the elderly man.

Seth blushed and looked down, unsure what to say.

The man chuckled. "You have quite the swing there. With that kind of power you could find yourself on the pro circuit one day. Of course, you would have to master these skilled shots as well. Keep working at it though and you'll have a bright future."

"Thank you sir." He mumbled as the older man walked away.

Jake clapped Seth on the back, making the young boy stumble forward a few steps. "We've got the next Tiger Woods among us."

"Please no. That man has to be a walking STD as many women as he slept with," Bella shuttered. "I will kill you if you turn out like that, Seth."

I cringed. Bella knew about my past. I wasn't stupid enough to hide anything from her. Whenever I had been able to catch her long enough in the beginning I had given her all the details I could about myself. _Probably what had her running so long. It's not like you're a fucking prize or __anything._

"I'm starving." Embry announced, signaling that it was time to eat.

We headed in to the dining area and ordered several large pizzas. As always, I felt bad when I saw how much Sue was paying for us all. One of these days I was going to have a way to pay Charlie and Sue back for everything they did for us. Sam too, for that matter. Sam and Emily picked up a lot of slack for the pack also. Sam felt it was his duty as the Alpha. Bullshit. He was just being a good guy. Once all the guys were old enough to have a small job on the side it might be easier on them. They could buy some of their own groceries. Maybe if we did some actual big-game hunting in the meantime it would help. I would have to propose the idea to Sam.

When our order was up I hopped up to help carry it to our table, but Bella grabbed me before I could walk away. "Hey, can I borrow your phone for just a minute?"

"Sure." I yanked it out of my pocket, happy to do anything she asked of me.

Knowing that Jake's eyes were on us, I decided to press my luck. I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers gently. When I pulled back she was smiling at me softly. As I pulled away she reached up, grabbed my face and pulled me back for another quick kiss. It was just another innocent little peck, like the others, but I swear my heart fucking stopped right there in the restaurant.

"Thanks." She said as she released me. I honestly wasn't sure what she was thanking me for, the cell phone or the kiss.

I turned and headed for the counter to help Jared and Seth grab the pizza. My foot caught on the edge of a chair and I stumbled, nearly taking me and Jake both down.

"Sorry man," I apologized with a sheepish chuckle.

"Fuck off," He grumbled in return.

I barely managed to keep myself in control. I could not lose it in this restaurant. I couldn't let his jealousy make me lose control. I was far too mature for that. I stared straight ahead at the counter where I was headed and brought up the memory of the kisses. I kept the sensation of her lips on mine at the forefront of my mind as I walked. She had pulled me back in. She didn't have to do that. She initiated the second kiss. One kiss would have been enough to prove a point to Jake. She had to have wanted that second one. I was grinning like a fool again by the time I reached the counter.

"Quite a show there," Jared said with a grin.

I smiled in return.

Seth glared at him. "That's my sister, man."

"It was just two little kisses." I said, unable to wipe the fucking grin off my face.

I turned to look at her. She was sitting there looking at my phone, her face lit up with mischievous laughter. "What is she up to now?"

Jared grinned. "I don't know, but it's nice to see her so happy."

Something in my chest unwound at the sight of my imprint laughing. _Yes, it was really fucking nice to see her happy._

It wasn't until I was on the construction site that afternoon that I understood why she was laughing at lunch.

"_**Hey there, Li'l Red Riding Hood. You sure are looking good. You're everything a big, bad wolf could want.." **_ The familiar song started playing close by. It took me a minute to realize that everyone was looking at me. It took a second longer for me to realize that the song was coming from my pocket. I pulled out my cell phone to see the display lit up with a picture of Bella. My face pulled into a wide smile. My girl took my phone to program a special ring tone for her. A very appropriate ring tone.

I started chuckling as I opened the phone. "Hey, Babe."

I could hear the smile in her voice. "Like the new ring tone, Paul?"

"I do. We might just have to go for a walk in the woods. Later." I could feel the eyes of all the guys and the foreman on me. "Uh, Bella. I'm not really on break. Did you need something?"

"Oh, sorry! Can you stop on the way home and buy some Peanut Butter Cup ice cream?"

"Sure."

"And some pickles?"

My face screwed up. "Peanut butter cup ice cream and pickles? Any particular kind of pickles? Sweet or dill?"

"Dill," her tone implied that I was fucking retarded for even questioning.

"Sure, Babe."

"Thanks, Paul. Don't forget."

"I won't forget, Bella. I gotta go."

I slammed the phone shut and shoved it in my pocket quickly. Joseph, the foreman stared at me for a long moment. "So. She's pregnant?"

"Yep."

He nodded and walked away. Thankfully making nothing more of the phone call, regardless of company policy about phone calls only on breaks.

**A/N: Please keep the suggested baby names coming. I need all the help I can get!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

**A/N: Back to the slightly longer chapters, drafted before the muse ran out on me. **

**Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight**

BPOV

I straightened slowly and rubbed the sore muscles on my back. These _wonderful_ little wrestlers in my uterus were really getting heavy. I blew a strand of hair away from my face and wiped the sweat off my forehead with my sleeve. Why was it so hot in here all of a sudden? It was December for crying out loud! Had Charlie turned the thermostat back up?

Paul walked into the kitchen and frowned at me. "What are you doing?"

"Rearranging things. Charlie had the pots and pans all the way over there." I pointed across the kitchen. "But the stove is right here. Who wants to walk across the whole kitchen just to get a pot?"

Paul sighed and walked over to me, holding his hand out. "Princess, the doctor said you need to stop over-doing it. I'm pretty sure Charlie's kitchen can be re-organized after the twins are born."

I let him pull me to my feet, mainly because there was no way I was getting up on my own. I was twenty-three weeks now but I looked closer to thirty. I was a whale. I gritted my teeth and rubbed my belly as I straightened.

"That better have been a Braxton-Hick's, Woman."

I waved his words off as the tightening faded away. "Didn't even hurt."

"Liar."

"Asshole." Paul was having a definite effect on my language, and Charlie was not pleased.

"Well fine, if you don't want a back massage…"

I jerked my head up. "Really?"

He smiled, the effect of white teeth against deeply tan skin dazzling me for a moment. "Really."

I grabbed his hand and began dragging him toward my room, away from the noisy boys playing X-box in the living room. Paul turned to them as we headed down the hall.

"I'll be back for you fuckers later. You can't tell me none of you noticed what she was doing in there."

"Oh shit!" I heard them scrambling to shut the system down and leave the house as we shut my door.

I leapt onto my bed, and by leapt I mean 'heaved my enormous girth', leaving enough room for Paul to sit against the headboard. I don't know how this had become a daily routine, but I was never giving it up. Even after the twins were born I was going to come up with some kind of excuse to continue this. This man's hands were magic. I closed my eyes as his warm hands gripped my sides and pulled me gently backward until I was in the perfect position. And then he was kneading and pushing on just the right spots to melt all the tension away. I sighed and relaxed. I may have moaned. Possibly there was drool involved.

When I couldn't stay upright anymore I collapsed against his chest. Paul chuckled and wrapped his arms around my belly, resting them there. I sighed and opened my eyes to look at them. His hands were perfect. And there was something so sexy about seeing them on my belly. How could he make me feel sexy when I was the size of a garden shed?

"They're active right now." Paul murmured as his hand jumped with the kick from below.

"Hmm."

"Hey there little one." Paul said.

Immediately there was a flurry of movement.

"They love your voice."

I could feel his smile against my head. I'd been taking Emily and Kim's advice, finding ways to make Paul happy. And I had to say, it felt really good to find new ways to make Paul smile. How did that work? How was it that it made _me_ feel so good to make someone _else_ feel good? And the more I focused on him, the more content I was. We still argued about stupid things, but we didn't seem to be as angry now. Now it seems more like play-fighting. Maybe he'd been play-fighting all along and I was the only one who had been angry. Now that I let myself relax around him, I found that I really liked the guy. Sure, he had a flash temper, and he tended to speak without thinking. And he had a foul mouth. But there was more to him than that. He was also a protector. He was caring. He knew when to be gentle with me and when I needed a kick in the pants. The back massages felt wonderful, but my favorite part was after, when he just held me and we would talk.

"It won't be long now before they'll be here. I can't wait." Paul said.

I looked around my tiny room. "Yeah. It's going to be a tight fit. Where on earth am I going to put all their stuff?"

"They are going to need a lot of stuff," Paul said thoughtfully.

"I certainly can't fit two cribs in here."

"It's not like they aren't used to sharing their space. We can get by with one."

I giggled. "Very true. Even one crib would be like a palace compared to my belly."

Paul rubbed my stomach. "I'm sure your belly is a good home. Very warm and cozy."

There was a light knocking on the door. "Come in."

I probably would have jumped off of Paul's chest and hid under the bed if I'd realized who was going to walk in the door. When Renee walked through the door I swear my heart stopped. At least it looked like the reaction was mutual. She was staring at Paul's hands on my stomach as all the color drained from her face. Phil was standing behind her, his face stoic.

Paul slowly removed his hands and whispered in my ear. "Babe, I think you should probably have a minute alone with your Mom. At least, I'm guessing she's your mom. That or she's your clone. Are you ok with that?"

I nodded slowly, appreciative that he would know exactly what I needed even if I couldn't vocalize it. He slid gently out from around me, dropping a gentle kiss on my forehead before easing around Renee, who was still standing statue-still in the doorway. Paul stopped in front of Phil.

"Sir. Want to take a walk? Give these two a moment?"

Phil nodded and gave Renee a little push, pulling the door closed behind her. His push seemed to break her shock. Tears came to her eyes as she rushed to the bed.

"Bella! Oh my baby! Look at you!"

I held out my arms as she crashed into me. "Please don't hate me!"

"Oh, Honey, I would never hate you! I can't hate you. You're my baby." She squeezed me tightly for a moment before holding me at arms length to get a good look. "My goodness, how far along are you?"

"Um, 23 weeks."

"But you look so much further along."

_Geez, you don't have to be so hateful about it. I know I'm huge._

"I'm having twins."

Her eyes got big. "Oh. Wow. Do you know what you're having yet?"

I shook my head, wondering when she would get to the really hard questions. "No. But we should find out at next week's appointment. We're really excited. Paul hopes they're boys. He doesn't want to have to worry about any little punks looking at his little girls. I kind of hope they are girls. It seems like all we have around here are boys."

"So, I take it Paul was the boy in here a moment ago?" Renee was watching me with a neutral expression I couldn't quite read.

"Yeah," I responded nervously.

Renee leaned in with a smirk. "He's a hottie. I can see why you moved so fast with him! Not that I'm condoning this! I'm still disappointed that all those safe sex talks we had were wasted. But if they had to be wasted at least you had the good sense to choose a fine specimen like that."  
I laughed and rolled my eyes. Trust Renee to consider it all ok because Paul was so good looking.

"What are you guys doing here anyway?"

"Oh! Phil surprised me. Isn't that sweet? He knew that I would be missing you for Christmas so he called Charlie and arranged for us to spend Christmas with you guys. Charlie is even letting us stay on the couch tonight so we'll be here Christmas morning!"

My heart crashed. That meant Paul would have to go to his house. I hadn't spent a night without him in the same house for months, well except when he was patrolling. Somehow knowing that he would actually be sleeping somewhere else tonight was almost painful. I was used to waking up and eating breakfast with him. Who was going to make sure I ate enough for breakfast? And drank all of my milk? Paul was supposed to open Christmas presents with us in the morning. I was really nervous about giving him his present. It was kind of unconventional and I wasn't sure how he would take it. _Maybe this is better though. I can give it to him away from everyone else. I'll get him alone before he goes home for the night and give it to him then._

PPOV

I led Phil past Charlie, who was sitting in his recliner, studying the tv like his life depended on it. We walked outside and down to the beach. It was cold but at least it was dry.

"So, you must be Phil. Bella's told me a lot about you. I'm Paul."

"That's funny. She didn't mention a word about you."

My heart seized. He had no idea how much those words hurt. I thought I'd been making progress with Bella over the past month, since the miniature golf excursion. She'd seemed to be opening up to me lately. Every time I turned around she was doing things for me, warming my heart with her gentle smile. She made me special little snacks and she was always checking to make sure I didn't need anything. I had to be careful now what I said about her cooking, too. If I said I liked something I better fucking like it because I'd be eating a lot of it. She held my hand and and gave me sweet little kisses. She'd even started doing my laundry. That one almost came to a real fight before it dawned on me that my girl was trying to take care of me. So I surrendered my dirty clothes to her without another word. The guys laughed at me but the next night she let me climb into her bed and start rubbing her back. Fuckers stopped laughing. She was taking it slow, but at least we were going in the right direction, I thought.

But she didn't even tell her mom about me.

Phil rubbed his neck. "Ok. That's not fair. She hasn't called at all. She barely returns emails. We don't really know anything about her life out here. You saw the way Renee reacted. She didn't even know she was about to be a grandma."

His words caught my attention. "But you did?"

Phil cocked an eyebrow. "Bella forgot who gets the bank statements on that debit card she bought the maternity clothes with. Shopping at Motherhood was a dead giveaway."

I chuckled and shook my head. How did she miss that? Maybe she had sub-consciously wanted to get caught? Maybe she had just been too scared to tell her mother on her own and needed a little help.

"I figured this was Renee's last chance to have a Christmas with Bella as her little girl. Next year Bella will be a mommy."

My breathing hitched. Yeah. We'd be parents next year. I would be a daddy this time next year. Watching the twins struggling with their first presents. I smiled out at the waves crashing in. Hopefully in our own place. I was going to have to have a little talk with Charlie. There was no way we were fitting all of the babies' stuff in Bella's little room. She couldn't possibly bring them home from the hospital to Charlie's house. Hell, there was no way Charlie was going to keep me on that couch once the babies were here. I was going to be wherever Bella was. She was going to need my help with two newborns. I was going to have to speed things up a little. I figured I had about ten or twelve weeks tops to get her to move in with me before the twins were here since the doctor warned that twins usually came early.

"You must think I'm stupid if you expect me to believe that you're the father."

I saw red for a moment and had to remind myself that killing her stepfather would not help convince Bella to move in with me.

I turned to him. "You can believe anything you want."

He studied me. "She's obviously far along. She had to be a couple month's pregnant when she came out here. It's probably the reason she came out here."

"She came out here because that mother-fucker Randy was beating the shit out of her. And she looks so big because we're having twins. She's twenty-three weeks pregnant."

Phil's expression took on the look of a man trying to do public math. The fucker was probably trying to add up how many months twenty three weeks is. If he knew how doctor's started from the first day of the previous period, he might come to the conclusion that I could theoretically be the father. _And regardless of what Embry says I'm not a pussy for knowing that. A man has to research all this pregnancy shit when his mate is knocked up._

Phil's expression cleared. "I'd be willing to bet my life that you aren't the father."

_Well fucker if you keep pushing me, you might find out that you're doing just that._

I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. Bella needed Phil to play along and make life easier for Renee. She had explained her mother's flighty ways to me and how much she relied on Phil to take care of the woman. "Phil, someone else may be the fucking sperm donor. Ok? Sperm donors don't get contact. Hell, they don't get to know that the kids exist. I'm the Daddy. I'm going to wipe the snotty noses and tears. I'm going to put the band-aids on and teach them to throw the footballs. I'm going to be the one telling the bedtime stories. I'm going to be the one buying the cars and throwing the graduation parties. I'm going to be the one paying for the weddings and enjoying the grandchildren. Do you understand?"

Phil studied my face for a long moment before he nodded. "You love her."

"With everything in me."

"I'm going to hunt down that bastard as soon as I get home and I'm going to kill him." Phil promised.

"Only if you let me help." I tried to keep an appropriately threatening look in place while the smug grin fought to slide into place. Phil could not be allowed to know that Jacob and I had already taken care of Randy.

Phil smiled. "I think I like you."

We made our way back to the house and found Bella and Renee sitting in the living room with Charlie, laughing and catching up. I thought it might be awkward when the new husband walked in on the old husband laughing with the wife. But Phil just took a seat next to Bella's mom, threw an arm around her and relaxed. He didn't look jealous or distrusting at all. And Charlie for his part didn't look guilty, he just looked like he was catching up with an old friend. Renee sent me a big smile so Bella must have had a good talk with her.

Bella popped up off the couch, faster than I would like. I stepped forward, ready to catch her if she overbalanced. For fuck's sake she'd never had the best sense of balance and now she kept forgetting that her body was changing. I don't know how she forgot. That belly was growing daily. I certainly couldn't keep my eyes, or my hands, off of it. Damn that was sexy. I think I was starting to give the younger guys a complex about pregnant chicks, the fantasies I couldn't help but release into the pack mind. They would probably need therapy before Bella popped those kids out.

"Let me go grab my coat. I want to go for a walk, Paul."

I frowned at her. "You're supposed to be taking it easy, Bella."

She sent me a smile as she walked down the hall. Dammit. She needed to watch where she was walking, she almost cut that corner too short. "We'll make it a short walk."

I sighed as she disappeared and turned to see the three adults in the room grinning at me. I shoved my hands in my pockets and looked away. Maybe a walk wasn't a bad idea. I couldn't very well drag her back to her room with _three_ of her parents in here. Even knowing we weren't doing anything I would feel like a pervert, probably because I knew all the things I _wanted_ to be doing, and would be doing even with her parents there if she would just give the damn green light. So far she'd kept things at the 'let's hold hands and give sweet little kisses' level. Which was fine. Really. I'd take what I could get. It was a damn sight better than her hiding behind the whole fucking pack to stay away from me.

Bella appeared with her coat on and grabbed my hand, sending a shot of electricity up my arm and through my body. I loved it when she initiated contact. _I wonder if she realizes just how often she does that lately? _

As soon as we were on the trail I pulled against her hand, slowing her down. The girl was walking too fast for her condition. "Slow down, Princess. Don't want to start premature labor anytime soon."

She slowed and surprised me by snuggling into my side. I pulled in a quick breath as I felt her burrowing up under my arm. This was new. Not that I was going to complain. I quickly lifted my arm to pull her firmly into my side, settling my arm around her shoulder. I felt something unwind and click into place inside my chest. Yes. This was right. I felt myself standing taller and breathing easier.

"Charlie is letting them sleep on the couch tonight," Bella muttered sadly.

My heart stuttered. What? Charlie gave my couch to them? That _bastard_. I squeezed her closer to my side and frowned at the trail ahead of us.

"Well, _fuck_." I replied gruffly.

She nodded and I heard a sniffle. Shit, was she crying? I was going to kill Charlie.

"I can still be there for breakfast," I reassured.

"Good," She muttered with a shaky voice.

We were on the beach now. I pulled her over to a log and maneuvered her over to get her off her feet as quickly as possible. I knelt in front of her and wiped the tears away before grabbing her hands.

"Baby, it's ok. It's one night. I've been away during the night before. Just pretend I'm running patrols. Hey! I'll ask Sam if I can trade with someone and then I'll really be running patrols."

"You won't get enough sleep then."

"We can go back right now and take a nap together. How does that sound?"

"That sounds good." She answered with a smile.

I started to stand but she pulled on my hands.

"Wait! I wanted to do something first while we're out here." She pulled one of her hands out of mine and reached into the pocket of her coat. She pulled it out holding a little wrapped box.

"I wanted to give this to you alone. Keep an open mind ok? I'm going to have to explain this one."

Confused, I took the present. It looked like a little jewelry box. I ripped the paper off quickly to reveal the black velvet box. I shot her a questioning glance but she was staring at the box with a nervous look, chewing on that lip again. Damn. I thought I'd broke her of that habit. Slowly I opened the box, not sure what I would find. It was a silver wolf pendant on a silver chain. I reached in and pulled it out, shooting her another curious glance. If she really wanted me to wear this I would, but I was going to take a lot of shit from the guys. I was going to have to beat the hell out of them, daily, for a few weeks before they would let me live this one down.

"It's for you, but I'm going to be the one wearing it." She said softly, nervously.

I stared at her. "Huh?"

_Fucking eloquent, dip-shit._

"See, the wolf is silver, like you. It'll be near my heart, all the time."

My heart started to speed up. _Please tell me this means what I think it means._

"Do you like it?"

"I love it." _Yeah, like I'm stupid enough to give any other fucking answer._

Her smile blinded me. "Good."

"Does this mean…?"

She nodded. "I'd like to…to maybe have a real relationship with you, Paul."

What the fuck did she think we'd been doing? It's about time she figured it out.

"Hold your hair up," I commanded as I opened the clasp. I wanted to get this on her as quickly as possible. Why hadn't I thought of this? This was the perfect way to claim her as mine.

She quickly moved her hair out of my way with a smile. She shivered as the cold air hit her skin. I moved in to fasten the necklace, then I leaned in further, laying my lips against her skin. I breathed deeply, moving my lips further along her neck. I had wanted to do this for so long. Deciding to take a chance I moved up to her lips. I poured all of the love I felt for her into the kiss, all of the tenderness. I tried to leave out the lust and passion. Well, fuck it, some of that may have slipped in too. I couldn't help it.

Eventually Bella pulled away. It may have been sixty seconds or it might have been an hour. I wanted to pull her back to me, but I wasn't going to ruin a good thing. She wasn't running and screaming. She wasn't slapping me. She had been kissing me back. Hell, the girl's tongue had been in my mouth so I must have been doing something right for once.

"Paul, that feels wonderful. But it's December and I'm freezing out here. And you need to nap so you can patrol tonight." Bella said, her tone breathless.

Her cheeks were red and I could hear her heart beating nearly as fast as my own, which made the horny fucking teenager in me start shoving his way front and center. Unfortunately, I could also see that she was starting to shiver.

I stood with a playful growl. "Fine. Always ruining all my fun."

"No fair. You ruin my fun too. You ruined my fun just this morning."

"You were reorganizing Charlie's kitchen. That's not fun. That's obsessive-compulsive."

**A/N: I am working on the draft of the next to last chapter of the story. Woohoo. Don't worry, I've got several in between this one and that one. It looks like I am actually going to finish a fucking story. Look out for shit falling from the sky folks cause pigs must be flying.  
**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11 **

**A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this one. Probably because I had my most aggressive music playing loudly in my ears while doing so. Bella finally accepted Paul, yay! Things seem to be going a little too well for Paul and Bella don't they? And so the shit starts to hit the fan... **

**Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight**

**PPOV**

_ Paul, come to the treaty clearing._ Sam commanded. I caught a glimpse of the Cullens before he shut me out of his thoughts.

_What the fuck do they want now? _ We had a good thing going here. They stayed off our land and we didn't accidentally rip the heads off their sparkly little necks. _Fucking Cullens. Just what I need right now. Fucking 'vegetarians' making the trail even harder to untangle._

That red-headed bloodsucker was back, her scent weaving in and out of our patrol area all around the rez, like she was testing us, seeing how close she could get to the residential areas we were protecting. It was like she had a specific prey all of a sudden. There had been three instances where she chose to taunt us rather than go after hapless hikers. What was that crazy bitch up to? What, or who, was she after?

It looked like the entire Cullen clan was in the clearing with Sam and Jake. I fought back the urge to growl. Fucking treaty. My pack brothers had no chance against those odds if the Cullens decided they didn't want to honor the treaty any longer. And my foolish brothers had phased to human form.

"Paul, please be civilized," Sam muttered.

I narrowed my eyes. Fine. I phased on the spot, fuck modesty. I took my sweet time about pulling on my shorts, too.

"We're ready to hear what you have to say," Sam said in a tight voice.

The lead leech glanced between the three of us. "You wouldn't prefer to wait for more to arrive?"

"I didn't invite anyone else."

Sam's words surprised the hell out of me but I kept my eyes trained straight ahead and tried to keep a neutral expression. I would not give the slightest appearance of questioning my Alpha's decisions in front of these leeches.

"Very well. I must say that I'm pleased you feel we pose so little threat that you come with so few members of your pack."

_Ah, Sam didn't want them to know how big the pack has grown._ What? I do have _some _insight.

"Alice?" The leader motioned toward the tiniest of the leeches.

She stepped forward cautiously, a newspaper in her hands. The tall male behind her mirrored her every move, shadowing her. Must be her mate. Now that I had Bella I could finally understand why one of them would go psycho when we killed their mate. I could even respect the tension in his form. He was ready to leap onto any of us who made the slightest move toward the pixy holding the newspaper out toward Sam. I would be doing the same if that was Bella offering anything to a bloodsucker. _Hell, who am I kidding? I would have already ripped off the vamp's head, just as a precaution._

The bronze haired leech off to the side chuckled, drawing the attention of everyone in the clearing. He shook his head quickly, a sheepish look on his face. "Sorry. Stray thought."

Sam turned back to the pixy and took the paper gently from her hands, making sure not to make any sudden movements. He was also highly attuned to the threatening presence behind her. His eyes flicked over the paper quickly, before flying back up to meet the leader's.

"Why am I reading this?"

The leader grimaced. "We believe someone is creating a newborn army in Seattle. We don't know why yet. We don't know the target. But this is close enough to be a possible problem for all of us."

"We can take care of our own." Sam assured with clenched teeth.

_How dare he insinuate that we can't protect our people! _

I felt myself starting to shake. The leeches all turned to stared at me. The blond grabbed his little mate and backed away quickly. I knew I had to calm down but I wasn't sure how I was going to do that. My body was conditioned to attack when I smelled that bleach/sugar smell. I'd been having enough trouble ignoring the instinct before I was angry. And then all of a sudden I felt myself calming down. It was like a soothing blanket of calm was laid down over the anger, smothering it. I frowned down at my hands as the shaking stopped.

_What the fuck just happened?_

The sounds of someone crashing through the woods had us all on the defensive again. We spun around as Seth came running into the clearing, a fed-ex letter clamped in his muzzle. Even from this distance I could see him shaking. What the fuck? He was so angry he was shaking _after phasing_? What was in that package?

He ran full tilt into my legs, knocking me against Sam. He was growling, his eyes wild and rolling around. I could see my name written across the package. The most disturbing part was the smell though. Everyone in the clearing reacted as we realized that the fed-ex letter reeked of leech. The bloodsuckers all hissed while Sam and Jake growled. I stood there for a moment in shock. _I'm getting fucking mail from leeches now?_

_ Hey, dumb ass. Maybe you should open it._

I ripped the package from his muzzle and tore it open. The contents started to fall to the ground. My hands darted out to catch them, but my fingers only grasped the photos, allowing a note to continue fluttering downward. Once my eyes landed on them I couldn't look away. My heart stopped and the world fell away. There were two photographs. In one Bella was standing in a store, holding up a maternity shirt, smiling at Kim and Emily, one hand on her belly. The next was from three days ago when we were grocery shopping. She was pushing a cart and her stomach was noticeably larger.

"A mate for a mate. You took James from me so I am going to take your Bella. You may think you have her well protected but your numbers are limited. Mine are not - Victoria" Sam's tone was wooden as he read the note he had retrieved from the ground.

Heat poured through me so hot and fast I didn't even feel the shaking. One minute I was Paul and the next I was the wolf. I didn't even feel the shift. My growl filled the forest as I began pacing back and forth.

_That bitch is dead. I'm going to go to Seattle and I'm going to eviscerate her. I'm going to tear off her head and shit down her neck. I'll rip off her fingernails first. Then her toenails. Then her ears. Then I'll rip out her eyes…The pieces are going to be so small we'll have to burn down the fucking city to make sure we got them all._

I was lost in detailing how I was going to torture the fucking bloodsucker that dared to even think about hurting my Bella. My vision was filled with red and my chest burned. I couldn't wait to get my hands on her. Adrenaline poured through me. I could leave now and be back in the morning. Surely Seattle wasn't so big that she could stay hidden from me.

"You aren't going anywhere yet, Paul," Sam ordered, the Alpha tone in effect even when he was in human form.

I growled at him. How the fuck did he know what I was thinking right now?

"We need a plan. You heard Carlisle. She has an army. You'll be leaving Bella defenseless if you run off half-cocked."

Well that knocked me on my ass. I couldn't leave Bella defenseless. I whined. We needed to do something. Now!

The leach leader stepped forward. "We would like to help. She won't be expecting us. The element of surprise could make the difference."

Sam nodded. _Great. Let's all leave then. Now!_

The small one spoke up. "We have to have limited contact if we don't want her to know. She seems to be stalking that one and this Bella girl. Which means she is in the area a lot. This should be the only time we make physical contact until it is time for the battle."

"Why don't we just go find her now?" Jake asked with a sneer.

The big leech in the back sent him a big smile. "Yeah. I'm in the mood for a fight."

The little pixie's mate spoke up. "We don't know where she is. We can't all head off to Seattle to fight her, leaving everyone here defenseless. The chances that she might sneak through are too great. We also can't afford to split up, leaving a guard here. We don't know the size of her army. It's better to wait until she makes her move. It's our only chance."

"How will we know when it's time to fight?" Jake asked.

The girl smiled. "I will know when they're coming. Does anyone here have email? Or cell phones?"

I growled at her. _We don't live in teepees you fucking leech. We do have cell phones and computers._

The bronze haired one laughed again. "Yes. They do."

I turned to him. Did that leech just read my mind?

He met my eyes and cocked an eyebrow. _Well fuck._

The pixie's mate stepped forward. "I would like to show them a few things about fighting newborns."

The leech leader nodded. "Thank you, Jasper. Your expertise in this arena should prove very helpful."

He stepped out in front of the others and I noticed for the first time that he was covered in scars. And I mean _covered. _ He had bite marks everywhere. _What the hell, was this guy some kind of leech MMA fighter?_

Bronze boy smirked again.

Jasper spoke up. "This would be more beneficial if more of your pack could be here to witness this."

Sam shrugged. "Don't worry. They'll see it the next time they phase with us."

The bronze one tilted his head at me questioningly. I couldn't help but think about the answer to his unasked question.

"Interesting. They're telepathic when they are in the wolf form. Go ahead Jaz. The others won't miss anything."

Sam and Jake joined me, phasing so that they would be sure to catch every nuance. Then Jasper beckoned to his mate. What, he was going to fight with _her?_ She was tiny! That bronze haired prick grinned at me again. I was going to wipe that grin off his face if he didn't cut that shit out. Our illustrious teacher blew his mate a kiss. She cocked an eyebrow and yawned then looked away from him, holding her hand out to study her manicure. _What the fuck pixy! He's charging you! Get your ass in gear!_

I was tensing for the horrible metal-on-metal sound as he collided with her, but it never came. I watched in awe as she slid her little foot to the side and shifted her weight, looking for all the world like a bored teenager as he flew right past her. He spun quickly and then they were moving so fast even I had trouble keeping up with them. Neither of them was holding back as they threw punches and kicks. Every so often one would connect with a tree or boulder. Inevitably, the tree would fall or the boulder would shatter. If I didn't know better I would think these two were trying to kill each other. But they kept laughing!

_They're insane._

_ Clearly._ Sam replied.

_Naw. They're just having fun. _Jake explained.

I was beginning to think this was going to go on all day when suddenly they froze. The little girl was perched on her mate's back, her teeth at his neck. She gave him a gentle kiss, pinched his ass and hopped down.

"Guess we know who's the bitch in that relationship," the big guy in the back said with a booming laugh.

The blond next to him shot him a death glare.

The big guy rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, Rosie."

"Do NOT call me, Rosie."

"Emmett! You're up. Victoria will fight more like Alice. She'll have a plan, a strategy. Emmett here still relies on brute strength, like a newborn. If a newborn gets his arms around you, you're dead."

We watched Jasper go through basic defense moves with the big one for awhile. This spar wasn't as entertaining to watch, but it was definitely more educational. Sam, Jake and I all filed away everything we could to share with our pack brothers. Between the three of us we should be able to catch it all.

_Bella's gonna tear you a new one if you don't get home in time to take her to the doctor's appointment, Paul. You're supposed to find out what the babies are today._ Seth's voice interrupted.

_Fuck!_

_Go. We've got this. _ Sam assured.

I shot off through the woods. I made it to Charlie's in record time, pulling on shorts as I ran from the woods. Bella was standing on the porch, arms crossed, cheeks red.

"I'm sorry. Pack business. Let me grab some real pants, a shirt and some shoes. It'll take one second. I'm really sorry."

She didn't even look at me as I rushed past. Fuck. She was really pissed off. Leah was in the kitchen but I didn't have time for modesty. I stood in the living room and exchanged my shorts for jeans and a t-shirt.

"Ugh, Paul. I should not have to see that in my own house."

"Tough shit. I don't have time for your bitching right now."

I grabbed my shoes and ran out the door. I could put my shoes on when we got there. "Ok, I'm ready."

Bella wouldn't even talk to me as we made the short drive to the clinic. It hurt, physically hurt, that she was mad at me, but in a way I was ok with it. I didn't know what to say. Her body couldn't take any stress right now. There was no way I could tell her about this psycho Victoria, but how could I hide something like this from her_? There's a crazy leech out there painting a big red target on Bella and I'm helpless to stop her._ I'd never felt so angry and helpless before in my life. I gripped the steering wheel until I heard it cracking. Slowly I released pressure. Breaking the steering wheel off would probably be a bad idea, considering we were still driving down the road.

_Keep your shit together, Meraz. Be strong for Bella. Act like everything is cool. She doesn't __need to know about the bitch trying to kill her because you aren't going to let anything happen to her. You're going to keep her safe and happy._

I pulled into the doctor's office, slipping my shoes on quickly as she opened her door and slid her legs around. She moved so slowly I had plenty of time to get around the car to help her out. I slid an arm around her back, trying to offer what support I could as she waddled into the clinic. Fuck, that was the cutest waddle I'd ever seen, but hell if I'd let her see me smiling about it. She'd beat the shit out of me if she thought I was laughing at her, or start crying about being a heifer again. _That_ had been a long night.

Thankfully the wait wasn't very long. I waited anxiously out in the hall while the doctor did the invasive exam part. Poor Bella. I knew she hated this part of the visit; it wasn't exactly my favorite part either. It was hard enough when I knew some guy was _looking_ at her wrong, when her clothes were on. This killed me. That man was lucky I hadn't lost control and torn his hands off yet.

I jumped away from the wall as the door opened. "Come on in, Paul. We've got the ultrasound all set up."

Something was wrong. Bella's eyes were filled with tears. I felt my body trying to shake. Taking deep breaths to calm myself, I crossed to her side and took her hand.

"Baby?"

She sent me a shaky smile and squeezed my hand but didn't say anything.

I turned to Dr. Sweetwater. "What's wrong?"

The man sent me a reassuring smile. "Nothing. And that's how we're going to keep things. I'm putting Bella on bed rest. She's having too many contractions and she's showing early signs that her body may be trying to dilate. She's not in immediate danger of going into pre-term labor at this time but I think if she continues at the rate she's going she will be."

I sighed with relief. Thank fuck. The babies were fine. Nothing was wrong with them. Nothing was wrong with Bella. She'd just been overdoing it. Like I told her. Of course, I was going to have to tie her down to get her to actually stay down, but maybe she would listen to the doctor where she hadn't listened to me.

_I definitely can't tell her about Victoria now. She's stressed enough._

"Now, do you two want to know the sex of the babies?"

"Definitely."

"It looks like you two are the proud parents of little girls."

I felt like my heart was bursting. Girls. Little Bellas, just like I'd envisioned the first time I sat in this clinic with her. I felt tears starting to fall from my eyes and wiped them quickly. This time around the babies looked like real people in there. It was amazing. I could see their eyes, ears and noses. Baby A was even sucking on her thumb.

The doctor handed us copies of the ultrasound pictures as we were getting ready to leave, making my girl's face light up. I had a feeling the ride home was going to be much better than the ride here. I placed a hand on her back and started ushering her toward the door.

"Remember Bella, it's important that you stay in bed or on the couch. You can only get up to visit the toilet or take a quick bath. No lifting. No strenuous activities, including intercourse, and try to avoid any stressful situations. And pay close attention to your body for any signs of labor. Multiples rarely make it to forty weeks."

Fucker had to go and piss her off just as we were leaving. I could feel the annoyance running through her as we headed out the door. _And thank you so fucking much, Dr. Sweetwater for ruining __any chance I had of getting laid anytime soon._

"I bet everyone will be excited to find out that we're having girls. You can call Renee now and tell her what to buy!" I tried to inject some cheer into my voice, get her excited again.

She sent me a narrow-eyed look.

Ok then.

I let most of the ride go by in silence. "Want a back massage when we get home?"

She sighed and responded sullenly. "Well we might as well. I'm going to be in the fucking bed anyway."

My eyebrows shot up. I'd never heard her use _that_ word before.

"It's nice to feel appreciated," I muttered in response.

Bella was silent for a moment before she reached over and grabbed my hand. "I'm sorry. I'm being a big baby. I'm just disappointed. I wanted more time before I had to lay around like a beached whale. A massage actually sounds really good."

No one was home when we got to Charlie's. I led her to the room and got her settled on the bed before I climbed on behind her, spooning her. It didn't take very long for me to rub the kinks from her back. It took even less time for her to lose her fight against her body's need for sleep. I glanced around the room, thinking as she slumbered besides me, muttering senselessly every so often.

She was going to go crazy stuck in this room, in this house. I had to get her out of here and into my place. It was time to talk to Charlie. He knew how serious I was about Bella. It was clear the babies weren't going to fit into this room. We had to do something before they were born. Why wait until it was time to take them home from the hospital? I was fairly certain I could convince Bella to come to my place with or without Charlie's consent. But...I needed to prove that I could be respectful of his place in her life. He was her father and somehow I knew that it would mean more to her if I went about this in the right way.

The familiar sound of his police cruiser pulling into the driveway filtered through the house. Then I heard the car door slam and a few seconds later his boots clunking on the porch. He walked into the living room and headed for the kitchen. _It's now or never. _I had to get this done before the house started filling with people. Sue was due home from the hospital in half an hour and there was no telling when or if any of my pack brother would stop by. I slid off the bed, eyeing Bella to make sure she didn't wake up. I pulled the cover up over her, to replace my body heat, before heading out to find Charlie, closing the door behind me with a soft click.

Charlie was just settling into his recliner, a beer in one hand and the remote in the other.

"Can I talk to you for a minute, Charlie?"

He eyed me warily, slowly sliding the remote back onto the side table. He nodded. "How was the appointment?"

"She's on complete bed rest."

Charlie whistled. "Bet she's real happy about that."

I nodded. "You'll want to steer clear for awhile."

"And the babies? They good? Did you find out what they are?"

"They're good. But I'm not stupid enough to tell you what they are while she's asleep."

Charlie laughed at me before taking a large swig of his beer. He set it down on the table before turning back. "Ok. What's this really about?"

I decided the best way to deal with Charlie was to be blunt. "There isn't enough space in that little room for Bella, the babies and all of their things. I want to ask Bella to move in with me, before the babies are born."

Charlie stared at me with a blank expression for a long time. "She's only seventeen."

"Yes, Sir. I don't see what difference that makes. I'm going to love her for the rest of her life."

"That doesn't guarantee that she'll love you for the rest of her life though, Son. I haven't heard anything in the legends that say the imprint has the same bond to the wolf. She could always decide to move on. "

I shuddered at the thought. "And I'll have to deal with that if it comes along. I'm not going anywhere though. I'm in this for life."

He stared at me some more. I started to get uncomfortable as he just sat there. Why wasn't he answering me? _Wait, where's his gun?_

"I have no problem with Bella moving in with you." My heart nearly burst open with joy. _I am such a pussy._

He held up a hand. "But, I have one condition."

_Fuck, what is it? Please don't make me promise to wait until she's thirty to sleep with her. Bella would find out and probably hold me to it._

"You have to marry her first."

I sighed in relief and smiled. "Not a problem."

Charlie let out the biggest laugh I'd ever heard from him and grabbed his beer. He flipped on the tv, still laughing and shaking his head. "I thought you knew my daughter."

**A/N: So I was scheduled to work a 17 hour day today, but they released me to go home after only 1 hour of overtime instead of making me stay the whole 9 hours. I could have used the extra money, but I was tired and would rather work on this! So here's another chapter folks. **


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**A/N: Everyone can thank feebes86 for the little newspaper clipping near the end here :) She asked a question in a review and I couldn't help but answer it (and I hadn't really been planning on ever answering it in the story-I was just going to leave it kind of dark and mysterious). So see, reviews can be a very smart thing to do. (Because apparently I can't help myself).**

**Also, to clear up any confusion...Paul killed James just after he imprinted on Bella in chapter 2. James was the blond fucker in the leather jacket, part of the trio of vamps they went after. If you remember, a red-headed vamp and another got away.**

**Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to SM**

**BPOV**

I wiped the tears from my cheeks and tried to concentrate on the text-book propped up in front of me. If anybody walked into the house I was going to look so foolish. Who cries over a science book? I peered at the large belly my book was resting against. _Ok, so I do have a good excuse._

It didn't help that the chapter I was studying was cell reproduction. Oh, I knew _all_ about cell reproduction.

But the real problem was the music I was listening to. It was just so _sad._ The lyrics were just so heartbreaking, the singer's voice so raw with pain. I closed my eyes and just listened.

Suddenly the music disappeared as the ear buds were ripped away. I opened my eyes to see Paul frowning down at me. "You better not have been listening to it again."

I struggled to sit up, ready to argue my case. Paul put a hand on my shoulder and gently pushed me back down.

"Bella, bed rest. Lay down."

"Fine. Now give me back my earphones."

He put one to his ear and rolled his eyes. "Only you would cry while listening to Avenged Sevenfold."

"It's so sad though!"

"It's metal!" He exclaimed sitting on the edge of the couch next to me. "I never should have given you my iPod."

"Have you listened to it?"

"Of course. I bought it. Have you heard the drums on that shit? Fucker's good."

Tears rushed into my eyes, completely blurring my sight.

Heat seeped into my skin as Paul's warm palm cupped my cheek. "What now?"

"The drummer died!" I sobbed. "Half the songs on their latest album are all about how much they miss him. They had to get a fill-in drummer to record the album and finish their tour! And he wrote and recorded the most beautiful song just days before he died. They've got it on there. Do you want to listen?"

He jerked the iPod out of my hand. "That's it. I'm erasing that album. Which one is it? City of Evil?"

"No! I'll kill you. Besides, it's Nightmare. How do you not know that? You bought it!"

Paul shrugged. "I don't care what the album is called. It's loud. It's fast. Makes a good soundtrack in my head when I'm on patrol. Plus it drives Leah crazy when she has to patrol with me."

"Please don't erase it. I really do love it."

He narrowed his eyes and studied my face. "Maybe we can make a deal here. I won't erase it if you promise to only listen to it when someone else is here. I'm going to come home one day to find you with slit wrists."

"That's not funny."

"I know. That's my fucking point." He leaned forward, planting a kiss on my forehead before standing and heading for the kitchen. "Emily's coming over in a bit. She has a favor to ask you, but I thought it might go over better if I warned you first."

I nervously played with the pages of my science book. What could Emily want from me? She came by frequently now, to help cook for everyone. We seemed to be forging a solid friendship, but I couldn't think of anything that I could really do for her. Especially stuck on the couch or in my bed. Paul reappeared, picked up my feet and slid under them, settling them on his lap before handing me a banana and a glass of milk. I didn't even bother to argue that I wasn't the least bit hungry. He wouldn't care.

I peeled the banana and took a bite, forcing myself to chew and swallow. Wait, wasn't Paul supposed to tell me what Emily was coming over for? I glanced over to see him staring at me, watching the banana that was nearing my lips. Heat spread to my cheeks as I quickly lowered it.

"Paul? What did Emily want to ask me?"

He shook himself and looked away. "Uh, you know her and Sam are engaged, right?"

"Sure."

"Well, Sam wants me and Jared to be his best men so she wants you and Kim to be her flower girls, or whatever you call them."

"Bridesmaids."

"Yeah. That."

"And does she plan on holding the wedding in Charlie's living room or are we dragging the couch into the church?" My voice may have been a little snarky. _There is no way I'm going to get up in front of a group of people looking like this! That woman has lost her mind._

"She's not going to get married until after the twins are born, Bella."

"Oh." Well now I felt kind of stupid.

Paul slouched down, stretching his legs out and crossing them at the ankles. "I think it's about time they get married."

"Why? Have they been together long?"

He shrugged. "Fuck. Why not? They're in love. She's his imprint so it's not like she has to worry about him changing his mind and running off with another woman. They're both adults. I think they've been together long enough."

I stared at him as he spoke, my mind frozen. He wasn't talking about Sam and Emily. He was talking about us. Did he know that? But we weren't ready! _I'm only seventeen! I'm not ready to be a wife!_ My eyes fell to my stomach. I almost snorted but I managed to hold that reaction in. _Yeah, well you aren't ready to be a mother either. But guess what? _

"Do you think they shouldn't get married?" His voice held an edge to it.

"I'm sure Sam and Emily wouldn't be getting married if they weren't ready. Right? I mean, Sam's over his old love, right? He wouldn't leave Emily and go back to her?"

Paul's eyebrows shot up. "Are you serious? Sam couldn't leave Emily for Leah. The imprint bond is too strong. Babe, nothing compares to the way a wolf feels about his imprint. This isn't like regular love. I've felt what the other guys feel toward their girlfriends through the pack mind, and I've felt what I feel toward you. It's on a completely different level."

My mind reeled with the influx of information. There was too much to take in. I had never known that the other woman in Sam's past was Leah, Emily's own cousin. My step-sister. It certainly explained the reason she was always such a bitch. I would probably be a constant bitch too. But that was completely surpassed by what else he had said. Paul had basically declared that he loved me. He hadn't really ever done that before. There in the beginning he had stated that I was the center of his universe due to the imprint, but this was different. Combined with his behavior over the past few months, the way he took care of me and fussed over me, the smoldering looks, and even the companionship, I think he actually meant it in the traditional way. As in, he was _in love with me._

Paul was apparently worrying over a completely different issue though. He was studying me now. "You don't like marriage do you?"

I picked at the banana peel. "What makes you ask?"

"Bella," he growled. "Don't be a bitch. Just answer the fucking question."

I clenched my teeth and raised my eyes. Suddenly I was feeling trapped. "I don't think it's something that a teenager should really be thinking about, no. I've seen what happens when people try to make those kinds of decisions too young. My parents were too young when they got married Paul. And I got to listen to them yelling and screaming at each other. I'm not going to make the same mistakes my parents made."

He moved my legs quickly but gently so he could jump up off the couch and started to pace. "But we aren't Charlie and Renee, Bella. We wouldn't make their mistakes."

"You can't know that!" I inched myself up while he wasn't looking.

"I can! We have a bond that they didn't have. We have something special."

"We can have something special without being married, Paul," I assured him.

He shook his head, frustrated about something. He opened his mouth to argue his point, but then he cocked his head, listening to something I couldn't hear. I barely managed to restrain myself from making a Lassie comment. He slammed his mouth closed and stalked back to the couch. Leaning down, he grabbed my face, kissing me roughly. Despite our small disagreement I found myself returning the kiss, caught up in the passion. Damn, Emily and Kim were right. Paul was going to be fun to have around. Especially after fights.

He released my face and stepped back. "Emily's here to talk to you." He turned to answer the door, throwing his next statement over his shoulder. "And lay the fuck down."

Paul jerked the door open just as Emily raised her hand to knock. He practically growled at her. "Come on in."

"I'm taking a shower, Bella." He said as he stomped away.

We watched him disappear down the hall to my room to retrieve his clothes. Now that he basically lived here it didn't make sense for him to keep his things in a duffel bag beside the couch. At first when I started doing his laundry, his clothes had stayed in baskets in my room, because I wasn't sure where to put them. Somehow they had started integrating into my drawers and closet. Charlie had never said a word and now I didn't even think anything of it.

Emily turned to me with a concerned expression. "Are you ok? Did I interrupt something?"

I shrugged and scooted back down. He would only throw a fit if I was still sitting up when he came out of the shower. "Just the usual."

Emily perched on the edge of Charlie's recliner. "So you two still fight a lot?"

I nodded, a little embarrassed to admit the fact to Emily. I bet Emily and Sam never fought.

"I'm sorry. Maybe I should come back at another time," Emily apologized.

"No." I tried to reassure her. I made my voice as pleasant as possible. "That would just be a wasted trip. We'd probably be at it again. What can I do for you?"

"Well, I know that we've only known each other a few months. But I feel like we have a special bond, being imprints and all. So, I would like to know if you would be willing to be one of my bridesmaids. With Kim. And before you even ask we're thinking about a fall wedding so you would have plenty of time to recover after the babies are born. What do you think?"

I pasted on the biggest smile I could. "I'd love to Emily."

She squealed. Emily actually squealed like one of those crazy fan-girls on tv. Then she scrambled over and hugged me. "Thank you so much. This means so much to me."

Emily settled back and studied my face. "Do you want to talk about your fight with Paul? I'm here to listen if you need me."

_I'm sure that'll go over well. Sure Emily. See, I don't really believe in marriage. Still want me standing up there at your wedding? I'll jinx the whole thing._

I shook my head. "I think it's probably important to keep some things private."

She nodded in understanding. "Just call me up anytime you do need to talk. You know I'm always here for you."

"Thanks Emily. I appreciate that."

She stood. "The pack's coming over for dinner tonight so I've got to get home and start cooking! Want me to have someone bring some over for you guys?"

"I think Charlie was bringing something home tonight."

"You think right," Charlie said as he walked in the door. In one hand he had a plastic bag filled with containers of fried chicken. The other held the mail. He tossed the mail my direction as he walked toward the kitchen.

"Where's Paul? Dinner's ready."

"Shower." I answered as I started sorting the mail.

"Bye Emily." I called as she made her way out.

Most of the mail was bills, which I set aside for Charlie to open and deal with. But there was one addressed to me! I never got mail. How sad is my life that one little envelope with my name on it can completely make my day? I opened it to reveal a pretty card with two cherubic faces on it. A smile burst across my face as I opened it and two crisp one hundred-dollar bills fell onto my stomach. _Jack-pot._

The inside of the card read: Dear Paul and Bella, I can't wait to meet your two precious bundles of joy. I hear they'll be making their grand appearance around March or April. You can be sure that I'll be by to see them. Love, Aunt Victoria.

_ I didn't even know Paul had an aunt._

Paul was suddenly standing next to me, breathing heavily, glaring at the card. His hair was dripping from the shower and cotton shorts were all that covered his damp body. "What's that, Bella?"

"A card from your Aunt Victoria. Why haven't I met your Aunt Victoria?"

"Cause she's a psycho bitch." He yanked the card out of my hand and stormed out of the house without another word.

I turned to see Charlie standing in the opening between the kitchen and the living room, my plate of food and glass of milk in his hands. He had a frown on his face.

"Have you heard of Victoria?"

"No," he replied. "I don't remember either one of his parents having siblings."

I turned back to watch the door for his return. "Maybe she's a great aunt?"

**PPOV**

I ran for the woods. As soon as I was deep enough in to be shielded from public view I ripped my shorts off, shoved the foul smelling card in my mouth and phased. Sam needed to know about this.

_What's going on? _Embry asked.

_ She knows details about the babies. I don't know how but she knows. She knows when they're due. That bitch is playing with us._

I could feel the shock and anger radiating off my brothers patrolling.

Sam's house was just ahead and I could heard some kind of excitement going on inside. I phased and quickly pulled my damp shorts back on. I yanked the card from my mouth and bounded toward the house. There were several people inside, all trying to be heard over each other. Well they could fight about whatever the fuck they were fighting about later. This was more important. I shoved Sam's door open, banging it loudly into the wall, effectively silencing them all.

"This bitch has to die." I slammed the card on the table and stepped back.

The others surged around the table to read the card.

"Where did you get this?" Sam asked with a stiff voice.

"She sent it to Bella," I growled.

"Is Bella ok?" Emily asked, the concern in her voice warming my heart.

I nodded. "Yeah. I haven't told her about Victoria. She can't handle the stress right now. I'm sure she believes Victoria is my Aunt."

Jacob handed me another envelope. As soon as he held it out toward me I noticed that it also reeked of leech. "Yeah well, she's not just fucking with you now. I got this in the mail today."

I peered into the envelope to see a newspaper clipping. Frowning I pulled it out.

**LOCAL TEEN CLAIMS TO HAVE BEEN ASSAULTED BY WEREWOLVES**

The severely injured minor, age 17, of Phoenix Arizona was discovered on 15 September in the early morning hours by a delivery truck driver in a dark alley. The minor suffered life-threatening injuries including broken bones, a collapsed lung, internal bleeding and a serious concussion. The patient required two blood transfusions and three surgeries. After a week in a medically induced coma, the patient was allowed to awake. However, when questioned by police, the patient began to hysterically claim that two giant bear-sized wolves had herded him into an alley, where they proceeded to transform into enormous Native Americans. At this point, one of the 'werewolves' accused the patient of battering the wolf's mate. When the patient denied the charge, the two attacked. The patient claimed his memory failed at this point. The Phoenix police department believes this is a gang related attack due to the location of the alley and the severity of the wounds. The patient's parents are imploring any who know the true details of the attack on this young man to come forward. This reporter attempted to speak with the patient regarding his experience but was informed that the patient needs more time to ground himself in reality before dealing with the outside world again.

I stared at the page for a long moment, fighting the urge to laugh. Priceless. If he tells the truth he's fucked, they'll all think he's insane. It was too dark in the alley for him to get a good look at us. And it's not like Jake and I flew down there. So there's no proof that we were in the area. He'll have to go along with the cop's gang theory if he wanted to get out of this without ending up in the looney bin.

Sam growled. "This is not funny, Paul!"

I slid the paper back into the envelope. "Imagine if he'd done it to Emily. It'd be fucking hilarious then."

He narrowed his eyes at me. "This could expose us all."

"No. It can't. They think he's crazy."

"Victoria knows you two did that to him."

"And? You're point?" That bitch knew everything else. Why wouldn't she know this as well? She'd probably been tracking me back then. She probably started tracking me as soon as I killed her mate.

He grit his teeth.

I clenched mine. "We can't do anything about it now Sam." I held up the card from her. "She's directly threatening my family. We need to take her out."

He stepped over to me and placed a hand on my shoulder, squeezing. "I know. We're doing the best we can. We can't take off after her without knowing where she is. Unless you want to try to drag Bella along with us? Because that's the only way to make sure the crazy bitch doesn't circle around and come in while we're gone looking for her."

I hung my head, knowing he was right. This was driving me crazy. "Fine. But I want someone on Bella at all times now. I _need_ someone there at all times."

_Otherwise I'll lose my fucking mind._

"Someone will be patrolling or in the house with her from now on."

**A/N: Can't really relate to Bella on this one. Me and my hubby bought our wedding rings 5 weeks after our 1st date. That's not a typo folks. 5 weeks. 11 years later I still love that annoying man. And I was only 19 so I can't relate to the whole too young thing either. **

**Shameless music plug here: even if you hate heavy metal, check out Avenged Sevenfold's song Fiction. It's not heavy. It's piano, drums and stringed instruments, even a little choir action in the background. It's the one Jimmy 'The Reverend' Sullivan wrote and recorded raw vocals for just days before he was found dead of an 'acute polydrug intoxication' (drugs are bad kiddos). They put it on the latest album because he said it was his masterpiece and because it's damn good. For any classic piano lover it's worth a listen. Beautiful piece, very emotional. It's not polished, but I think that adds to the passion in his voice. The lead singer helps with some vocals but a lot of it is the drummer.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**A/N: Sorry this one is kind of short. Like I said can't relate to her on this one, so I had to struggle a lot on it. Please ask me lots of questions. I've pretty much drafted the rest of the story, and the questions will help me fill in anything I didn't think of!**

**Disclaimer: Twilight, blah, blah, blah, SM**

**BBOV**

The words on the page twisted and turned, refusing to stay put long enough for me to read them. With a groan of frustration I slammed the book shut.

"Problem?" Kim asked quietly.

I rolled my head to the side. She was sitting on the floor at the coffee table, working on her own English homework. Paul and Jared were out patrolling, so Kim had come over to work on homework. She had even volunteered to help with dinner.

I chewed on my lip. I knew what my problem was. But did I want Kim to know what my problem was? _You can't figure this out on your own, Bella. You need help._

"I don't know what to do about Paul."

Kim closed her book and turned to face me, giving me her full attention. "Ok, spill. What's going on?"

I rolled to my side, the weight of the twins pulling on me, slowing my movements. _I cannot wait for these two to come __**out**__._

"He's getting serious. Really, serious. He's thinking about marriage, Kim."

Her eyes widened. "He asked you to marry him?"

I grimaced. Even the thought made me cringe. "No. He was talking about Sam and Emily. But, he was really talking about us. I could tell."

Kim studied my face for a long time. "How do you feel about that, Bella?"

One of the twins kicked my stomach, hard. I rubbed the spot absently. "I'm not ready to be a wife! I'm only seventeen!"

Kim wrapped drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, resting her chin on top. "I don't know. You kind of act like his wife already."

Her words made me freeze. "What?"

She laughed. "You two remind me a lot of my parents. The way you interact. And look at yourselves! You live together. You cook his food. You pack his lunch. You do his laundry. You clean his messes. Or you did before you were put on bed rest anyway. You take care of him like a wife. The only difference I see is you aren't having sex yet and you don't have the same last name. And judging by the kisses I've seen lately, if the doctor hadn't put you on bed rest the last name would be the only difference left at this point."

I stared at her in shock.

Her smile softened. "Are you against marriage in general or just marriage now? I'm sure Paul would be willing to wait if that's what you wanted. You're his imprint. He'll do anything for you. No matter what it is."

I frowned, looking away. "I know. He really wants marriage though. I don't _want _Paul to have to give up something that means so much to him."

"So, it sounds like a timing issue. When do you see yourself getting married?"

I shrugged, or tried to. It was kind of hard lying on my side on the couch. "I always thought it would be later. After college at the very least."

She nodded encouragingly. "And do you still see yourself going to college?"

I chuckled sarcastically. "I think that's a little out of reach now. Paul can't be away from the pack. You know that."

I glanced up to see her smiling at me. "I take it that means you don't want to be away from him?"

I felt a blush forming on my cheeks. "I guess not. I hadn't…I hadn't really thought about it."

_Oh my… _I hadn't even considered moving away from Paul. I had just assumed that if Paul couldn't come with me, then I wasn't going anywhere.

_ I don't want to be away from Paul. No, I **can't** be away from him. The thought of moving away from La Push is physically painful. _

The front door opened and Embry, Collin and Brady all tumbled in, jostling each other. Kim sent me a warm smile before hopping up to start on dinner. As much as I needed to think on what Kim and I had been discussing, I knew I wouldn't get any serious thinking done with these three here.

"Ok, boys," I called out. "Homework time."

"Ah, man. I wanted to play Halo." Collin complained.

I shot an eyebrow up at him. "No sir. Not in this house. You are way too new to be playing a game like that."

His form started to shake with anger. Embry grabbed the boy's arm and shoved him outside, throwing him off the porch. I heard the sound of ripping cloth and sighed. The young ones were so easily angered. Brady sent me an apologetic smile.

I smiled back. "That was my fault. I should have stated that better. As soon as your homework is done we'll look for a game with a little less dramatic results. Ok?"

He grinned and nodded before settling on the floor and pulling out his backpack. A few minutes later Embry and Collin returned. Collin muttered an apology and thanked me for the shorts he found under the porch.

The house was filled with the quiet sounds of studying, and the occasional snap as one of the boys would flip a paper football at an unsuspecting brother's head. Kim could be heard happily humming to herself as she cooked in the kitchen. The smell of Italian food wafted into the living room. It wasn't long before the rumbling of stomachs added to the background noises. I smiled softly to myself.

_I am so glad I came here._

Kim set aside enough food for Jared, Paul, Seth, Leah and Charlie and let the boys dig in. She joined me in the living room and left them to the kitchen.

"Didn't feel like dining with the wild animals tonight?" I teased.

She smiled. "Not those three."

"Thanks for cooking."

She rolled her eyes. "You cooked for all of us way too many times, Bella. Please, let us take care of you once in awhile. Do you give Paul this much trouble?"

I blushed and looked away.

Charlie walked in and inhaled deeply. "Smells good. Please tell me I haven't missed it all."

"There's a plate for you in the oven." Kim assured him.

Now that Charlie was home, I was anxious for everyone else to leave. I had some things I wanted to talk to him about before Sue got home. Well, really just one thing. What exactly had gone wrong between him and Renee? Was it an age thing? Had they gotten married too young? Or was it that they got married at all? Were they just wrong together?

I choked my food down too quickly, barely tasting it. Immediately I felt my chest beginning to burn. Beautiful. I gave myself indigestion. There is nothing better than heartburn when you're on bed rest. Gathering up pillows I shoved them behind myself, inching my chest up just a bit, giving myself a little elevation. Paul wasn't here to see and he wouldn't be here for several more hours. What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

_Why won't everyone just leave?_

As soon as they were finished eating they gathered around the tv to watch some stupid sitcom. It wasn't even funny! Couldn't they see that I was dying here? Why couldn't they just go home?

"Dishes are all done," Kim announced as she walked out of the kitchen. "Plates are keeping warm in the oven for the others. Boys, don't you need to be getting home? It is a school night."

_Bless you, Kim. Are you psychic?_

Kim sent me a smile. "Night, Bella. You look tired. You should get to bed."

Charlie ushered them all out and turned to me. "Need help getting up?"

"Actually…I'd like to talk for awhile." I replied.

_Crap…what do I say now? How do I start?_

He settled into his recliner. Studying me nervously. What was he afraid I was going to say? Not like I could say I was pregnant. Wasn't that every dad's worst nightmare?

"What'd you want to talk about, Bells?"

I looked away. "Um…this is kind of a weird one. But, what…what went wrong between you and Renee?"

He leaned back and cleared his throat. "Uh…where's this coming from?"

"I just wanted to know, Dad."

"We just grew apart, Bells. It had nothing to do with you."

I rolled my eyes. "I know that. Why though? Why did you grow apart?"

He shrugged. "Just happened. We wanted different things. She wanted out of the small town. I never wanted to leave the Forks area."

I studied his face. He looked so uncomfortable. I hated doing this to him, but I had to know the answers. "Did you know before you got married? Did you just think you could change her?"

His face clouded up. "Are you saying it's my fault?"

"No! Not at all. I just know that you guys were kind of young. Maybe not thinking too clearly."

His face cleared. He nodded slowly. "We were young. Too young. Thought love was all we needed."

Charlie's eyes suddenly zeroed in on me. "Why are you asking about marriage?"

"Emily asked me to be a bridesmaid for her." Thank goodness I had that response ready. "She seems kind of young to get married. But, then again, they seem so in love. Were you and Renee like that? Do you think they'll make it?"

Charlie sighed and closed his eyes, banging his head against the back of his chair.

"Sam and Emily will make it," he said through gritted teeth. "It's different with the imprint than it was with me and Renee. Me and Renee were young and reckless. She was full of life and spontaneous and everything I'm not. _Too much_ of everything I'm not. But an imprint is something else entirely."

He raised his head and met my eyes, resignation buried there. "Renee and I were a bad match but Paul is perfect for you. That doesn't mean you should let him push you though. Wait until you are ready. He will wait as long as you need."

I wiped the tears falling down my cheeks. When did I start to cry? "Thank you, Daddy."

I had my answer. Hearing Charlie say that Paul was perfect for me eased my fears. It was ok to marry Paul, when I was ready, in my own time. _Whenever that is._

"How do you know so much about the wolves anyway? I thought they were supposed to be a big secret."

He started chuckling. "Jacob. That boy was over here one day shortly after Sue and I got married. I was putting up some pictures and he came across the one of you and him in the bathtub when you were four. Leah made some kind of snide comment. You know Leah."

I nodded. I could just imagine what kind of comment she had made.

"Next thing I knew, the kid was shaking like an epileptic. I thought he was going to have a seizure. I was trying to get him to lay down before he hurt himself and everyone else was trying to get him out the door.

"They got him out just in time. Unfortunately, I saw it all." Charlie shook his head. "Poor Sue thought I was going to run in fear and never look back. For a minute there I thought about it. Then that kid comes padding up to me with a damn frisbee in his mouth, wagging his tail. And I swear to you he was laughing."

I could see Jake doing that. Trying to make it a little easier on Charlie.

"Sue's an elder. She took Harry's place. So she sat me down and shared all the tribe's legends with me. I know quite a lot about them, Bella. So if you ever need to know what's going on, or you ever need to talk at all, I'll be here for you."

"I think I'm ready for that hand up now, Dad."

He pulled me to my feet, and then into a giant hug. He even walked me down the hall and tucked me into bed. Paul and Charlie were spoiling me. When one wasn't there to tuck me in, the other was. He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead.

"Remember, only when you are ready, Bells."

I didn't know when I would be ready. I didn't feel ready now. I was still only seventeen. For goodness sakes, I would have to have my father's signed permission to get married at this point. That should tell a person something right there. If you have to have a permission slip from your parents, you're too young. This wasn't a field trip, this was a life-long commitment to another person. Besides, I was freaking huge. I was not going to get married when I was the size of a heifer. But something had clicked into place with Charlie's reassurance. I _would _be ready. Someday.

**A/N: A little bit of filler here, but we get some more progress between Bella and Paul, even if the progress is baby steps and Paul doesn't actually appear anywhere in this one.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight**

PPOV

I surveyed the room as discretely as I could. It was crammed full of baby shit, and this was just from the baby shower Emily had thrown for Bella earlier that afternoon. We still had tons of shit we needed to buy. I turned my attention back to my work, turning the miniscule tool in my hand one final time. Standing, I gave the crib a firm shake. It held together. Now I just had to figure out how to get the sheets and shit on it and get it shoved in the corner.

I started stretching the tiny fitted sheet over the little mattress. Everything was fine until I got to the last corner. Fuck. This was the tightest fitted sheet I'd ever seen. I pulled harder. The mattress slipped from my hands, springing away to bounce against the wall. With a frustrated grunt I retrieved it only to see that the other three corners had come loose and I would have to start all over.

"Do you have fingernail clippers in your duffel bag, Paul?" Bella asked from the bed.

I nodded mindlessly as I attempted that fucking fourth corner again. The mattress shook as I pulled the taut sheet. Just as I thought I had the stupid thing on, the sound of material ripping filling the air. The fucking sheet had ripped!

Bella gasped. I rolled my eyes. "I'll buy another fucking teddy bear sheet, I promise."

I turned to her, expecting to see her in tears over the torn crib bedding. Instead I found her holding the one thing I didn't want her to know about yet. A little black jewelry box. And she had already opened it. Her hands were shaking as she raised her eyes to mine.

"What is this?" She asked with a deceptively calm voice.

Fuck. I tossed the crib mattress into the crib.

"Um." I ran a hand over my short hair. "It's a ring?"

Her eyes narrowed. "And what kind of ring is it, Paul?"

"A pretty one?"

She started to sit up but I shot her a narrow look. I had to keep this situation calm. The woman was thirty-one weeks pregnant. Way too fucking pregnant to be standing up and getting into a fight now. She could not take the stress. Yeah, it was a little too late for the stress part but I might be able to at least keep her on the fucking bed.

"Please lay down, Bella."

She glared at me but she did lie down. "Are you going to tell me why you have an engagement ring in your duffel bag?"

I stared at her in disbelief. _Isn't she supposed to be smart?_ "Because I was going to ask you to marry me, Bella. I thought that would be kind of fucking obvious."

Her cheeks filled with red, but I doubted this was the good kind of blush. No, I was going more with the pissed off blush this time. "I already told you that we're too young to be get married, Paul!"

"What difference does our age make!" _Fuck. She just doesn't want to marry me. I'm pushing her too fast._

Tears started to fill her eyes. I felt the tremors starting to rise but I pushed them away. I needed to stay and work this out with Bella. I tried to calm my voice. "Bella, look around, we're crammed in here. I would like to make an honest woman of you before the twins are born. I want to take you home. To my home. The twins would have their own room. We would have our own room."

"What do you mean make an honest woman out of me? That doesn't even make sense!"

I could see that what she really wanted to say was that it was a lie either way. I narrowed my eyes at her. _Don't say the fucking words, Bella. Those kids are mine by choice if not by blood. _

"What difference does it make if we get married before they're born or after?" She changed tactics, as sick of the paternity argument as I was.

"It makes a huge fucking deal to me if my kids are bastards like me!" I yelled.

_Woah. Back the fuck down, Meraz. _I frowned and looked away. I was more upset about this than I had even realized. _Where the fuck did that come from? Since when is that even part of this?_

"If you wanted to get married before these two were born you should have asked before I was the size of an oil tanker! There is no way in Hell I'm walking down the aisle looking like this!" She hadn't calmed at all, and now she wasn't making sense either.

"You wouldn't even talk to me then! You definitely wouldn't have said yes! How was I supposed to ask you then?"

"Well it's too late now! You'll just have to wait until after the twins are born!" She yelled.

"Fine! Live in this tiny-as-fuck room with all the babies' shit and me too then. Cause I'm not going fucking anywhere. Have it your way."

"Wait? So you only wanted to marry me so you wouldn't have to live here anymore?" Her voice took on a hurt tone.

"No you idiot." I rolled my eyes and dropped to my knees in front of her. "That's not the only reason. I want to marry you because I fucking love you. Charlie won't let you live at my house unless we're married though. At least not while you're a fucking minor."

I wiped the tears from her cheeks with the pads of my thumbs. Finally, all the anger and hurt dropped out of my voice, replaced with tenderness. "But it's ok. It'll only be a few months after the twins are born before you turn eighteen. Then we can move into my place. We can survive a few months in this tiny room. It's not like the babies are going to be walking or anything by then. And we can wait as long as you want until we get married. Hell, if you never want to get married, then we won't. As long as you're with me I'll be happy."

Her lips trembled as she smiled at me. "I didn't say no, Paul."

My heart stuttered. _She __**didn't**__ say no. Holy FUCK...she didn't say no. __**Why **__didn't she say no? She already told me she doesn't think teenagers should even think about marriage._

"In fact…" She eyed the box for a long moment before placing it in my hand. "I'd kind of like the opportunity to answer the question, if you wouldn't mind. But it hasn't actually been asked."

My heart stopped. She wouldn't…she wouldn't be asking me to do this if she planned on turning me down. Bella was too kind-hearted to do that to someone. Even me. I felt tears coming to my eyes. _This doesn't make sense. She doesn't want to get married. Why does she want me to ask her? Hey Fuck-up, she's waiting._

"Isabella Marie Swan, will you marry me?" The words rushed from my mouth.

She smiled nervously at me, her eyes filling with tears, along with the sweetest look I had ever seen. "Yes, Paul, I will."

I felt all the air rush out of my body. I wanted to pull her into my arms and never let her go. I wanted to get up and jump. I wanted to dance. I wanted to sing. I wanted to phase and tell all the guys. Instead, I ripped the ring out of the box with shaking fingers. She held her hand out and I noticed that her hand was shaking as well. I poised the ring to slip it on her finger.

Pausing, I looked into her eyes. _She might not really want to do this. She might be doing this for you. You have to make sure this is what she really wants._ "Bella, I don't want you to feel pressured to do this. I'll be here for you with or without marriage. Please tell me this is what you really want."

Bella rolled her eyes and growled at me. "Put the fucking ring on my finger, Paul. Now."

With a laugh I pushed the ring on over her knuckle, sighing in relief as it settled into place. I had it sized a little large, taking into account her swelling issues. We could get it re-sized later. Or not. I planned on putting her back into this condition often enough after all. I couldn't help the large smile that spread across my face at the sight of my ring on her finger.

"It is a pretty ring, Paul. It's perfect." Her voice was soft, content.

_Huh, not as against marriage as she thought now, is she?_ I fought to keep the smirk off my face.

I pressed my lips against hers, basking in the moment. This was really happening. She was really going to be mine. Until now I really hadn't known if she was going to decide that we were better off as friends. I'd still prefer to be married and moved into our own place before the twins were born. But there was no way in hell I was going to jeopardize things at this point. We were moving at Bella's pace. She was calling the shots.

She pulled at me with her little hands, trying to get me closer to her. I kicked off my shoes and climbed into the bed, pulling her tightly into my body. For the longest time we just laid there, kissing slowly, leisurely, before I felt her starting to relax, drifting off to sleep. I pressed a kiss to her head and sighed, closing my eyes. _That's it, no fucking way I'm sleeping on that couch ever again._ Peace filled me.

"Ah, Hell." Charlie's voice jerked me out of sleep.

I opened my eyes to see him glaring at me from the doorway. Yeah, it was probably a shitty thing to do but I couldn't help but smirk at him. "Hey, Charlie. She said yes."

Charlie's mouth fell open. His eyes darted down to Bella, still sleeping and curled into my stomach and then back up to me. I could see he wanted to tear into me, but he wasn't going to interrupt her rest. He walked into the room and held the cordless phone out toward me, speaking quietly.

"Sam's on the line."

I laid back, relishing the scent of Bella that wafted up as my head hit the pillow. "What's up?"

"You were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago, Paul. Where are you?" Sam's voice was filled with barely concealed impatience, but it couldn't touch my high.

"Sorry. Fell asleep with Bella. I'll be right there." I tossed the phone back Charlie's way, surprising the man. He fumbled to catch it as I slipped out of the bed.

"Where are you going?" Bella muttered.

I leaned forward, kissing her softly. "Gotta go run patrol, Babe. I'll be back in the morning. Love ya."

I covered her up with the blanket and yanked my shirt off. I patted Charlie's shoulder as I walked past him. I was in such a good mood that I decided to let the man off the hook before I left for the night. "Breathe Charlie. Bella refuses to actually get married until sometime after the babies are born."

I left the house, stripped, lashed the shorts to my leg and phased. Seth passed me, taking my place at Charlie's as Bella's protector. Sam had so far kept his promise, keeping someone either around or in the house with Bella at all times. I loped toward Sam's, the afternoon playing in a loop in my head. I couldn't help it. I'd never been so happy in my life.

"_Holy shit. __**That's**__ how you proposed?" _Quil was practically rolling on the ground outside Sam's house. "_You called her an idiot! And do you know how many times you said fuck?"_

_ "Real romantic, Paul."_ He laughed. "_Even I could do better than that."_

Was it possible for wolves to blush? I could feel the others, the ones on patrol, laughing at me. They were focusing on their duties, but there was a small part of them that was laughing at me at the same time.

Sam stepped out onto the porch. He surveyed the scene before him with a confused frown. "What's going on?"

Quil phased. He pulled on his shorts, still laughing. "Oh man. You've got to see for yourself. Go ahead. Phase. It's the funniest shit I've ever seen."

I rolled my eyes. Bella was going to kill me when she realized what kind of proposal story she had to tell when someone asked. Of course I would end up fucking it up. Sam eyed Quil for a moment before grinning. He started yanking his clothes off. _Ah man. _Before I knew it Sam was chuckling right along with the others. "_Only you, Paul."_

"Just wait until Jacob finds out." Quil said with a laugh from the porch.

I turned to him with a growl. That shit was not funny. Jacob still had a stick up his ass about that girl. He had backed off and was playing the friend card for now. But I knew that he was just waiting in the background, waiting for me to fuck up badly enough to send Bella running. And Jacob would be there, waiting to play the big damn hero. To come in and rescue her, make her whole again.

"_Calm down." _Sam commanded before phasing back.

"Quil go home and get some sleep. Paul, hit the trails. Collin and Brady are running the interior. I'm going to tell Emily we're taking off then you and me are going to relieve Leah, Jared and Embry on the exterior. Jacob's meeting us in about half an hour."

With one more glare Quil's direction I headed into the woods, nose to the ground searching for signs of intruders. Victoria was pushing us every day. She had begun to test our borders randomly, throwing her lackeys at us at all hours of the day and night. She was looking to see if our borders were ever not covered. Jasper said that she was gathering intel for her main assault. And apparently she didn't care how many she lost to gather the information. So far not one had made it back to her. But that told her something too, didn't it? It shouldn't be long now. The thought both thrilled me and terrified me. I was ready to get it over with, but worried about the possibility of failure. What if we couldn't stop them? What if she had too many newborns with her and some slipped through to the community? What if one got to Bella?

She was one fucked up bloodsucker. Just during the past week she had started leaving presents for the patrols. Golf balls. Miniature golf balls. The ones Seth had accidentally hit too hard into the woods back when we took Bella out for a day of fun. I liked to think that she followed our scent down there after we left and collected the golf balls while we weren't around. That more than half the fucking pack hadn't missed the scent of a damn leech that close to us. But the bitch was uncanny. I was half-afraid that she had been there the whole time. Watching my Bella.

"_Congratulations."_ Sam thought toward me as he ran up beside me.

My worries were shoved to the side as pride filled me. Bella had accepted my proposal!

"_Hey man, that is awesome!" _ Jared re-iterated as he came into sight.

"_She agreed to marry you after you fucked up the proposal that badly?"_ Leah snarled.

"_Leah!"_ Sam snapped at her.

"_Yes, Oh Great-and-All-Knowing-Ruler?"_ She retorted, her mind full of bitterness.

Sam sighed. "_Go home. Get some rest. Your next shift is going to start in twelve hours. You too Embry and Jared. Try not to stay up too late with Kim, Jared."_

_ "It'll be worth it, Sam."_ Jared thought with a grin as he took off running toward Kim.

I rolled my eyes, but I knew I was just as bad. Sam and I split apart, heading in separate directions along the large loop that surrounded the rez. No matter how much I wanted to replay the day's events over and over again now was the time to focus. I kept my nose down and my mind on analyzing every scent that I came across. I stopped for a second as I came across a strange new scent. It was human, but it wasn't one I had smelled before. It wasn't a resident of La Push. There was no reason for the scent to be here. This was not a hiking trail. It wasn't anywhere near a trail.

"_There's something off over here, Sam."_

I felt Jacob phase as Sam continued on his loop toward me. Sam ordered Jacob to take over my loop as I put my nose to the ground and began following the scent. My hackles rose as it went further into the rez. This lone person had managed to sneak through our patrols, recently. In the last twelve hours or so. He, or she, had known about our patrol and hidden while we were near. I could tell by the concentration of the scent, mixed with a healthy dose of fear, in certain areas. Then they had moved on when the path was clear. How could a human get through us?

A growl began deep in my throat as I followed the scent all the way to a house. _No. Fuck. No._

I was looking at Charlie's house. I ran up to the house, following the scent, not even caring that anyone could see a giant wolf in his yard if they cared to look. The moon wasn't very bright tonight. Maybe I wouldn't be seen. Really, I didn't care. Bella might be in danger so fuck the secret. I peered in the window to see her still sleeping peacefully. I sighed with relief. The bastard had clearly stood at this spot, looking in at her.

"_He was at Charlie's? The intruder was at Charlie's?"_ I could feel the rage pouring through Jacob. Colin and Brady were suddenly having a hard time concentrating on running their patrol as well.

"_Paul is handling it!" _ Sam snapped.

Sam's words yanked me back to reality. I needed to stop standing here like a jackass and figure out what was going on. Putting my nose back to the ground I continued following the scent. It turned, heading back out toward the trees, not following the exact same trail, since the fucker didn't have the ability to follow his own scent trail. It wound around the trees, pausing in places near our patrol loops yet again before heading off our land. I didn't even pause before following it. Fuck the treaty. If one of the Cullens came across me they'd better have the mind-reader with them because I wasn't letting this fucker get away. Sam must have understood because he didn't even try to stop me.

The trail was easier to catch here. Not too far from our patrol area the fucker turned lazy. He took off at a dead run, straight shot. I ran too, hoping that he was close, that I would have a chance to sink my teeth into him.

"_You can't hurt a human, Paul."_

_ "Not even one stalking my Bella?"_ I whined.

Sam considered it for a moment, thinking about someone peering in at Emily. "_No teeth. You can scare the shit out of him though."_

I skidded to a halt as I came to the edge of a state highway. It was the middle of the night. There wasn't any traffic; I couldn't see any lights and I couldn't hear any engines for miles. But I knew there was no point in crossing that road. The fucker's scent disappeared here. He'd had a car waiting. That's why he had started running when he did. I turned and started running back to our land. Now was the time that Victoria bitch needed to send one of her fucking intel gathering groups. I needed to tear something the fuck up right fucking now.

**A/N: _Of course_ these two would argue all through the proposal! I didn't even get a real proposal. My husband-then guy I'd been dating for 4 weeks-called me up at 3:15 in the morning, woke me up from a dead sleep and said "you're the one. I'm gonna marry you." My reply? "I know. I'm going back to sleep. Good night." And then I think I hung up on him. **


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**A/N:I just noticed a typo so I'm fixing it...I'm a little Obsessive Compulsive like that so sorry to all of you that are getting two chapter alerts for the same chapter! **

**OK so I'm a little fucked up...I laughed my ass off when I got my first negative-ish review. Seriously, you liked it until I knocked her up before she met Paul? That's kinda one of the major points of the whole story (bad shit happens but that doesn't mean the rest of your life is going to be shit-hell I had to live with a child molester for a few summers as a kid but my life is great now)..so what you're saying is you don't like it at all...so stop reading. And why the hell did you read all the way to Chapter 14 if you didn't like it from the second chapter? Find something you DO like and read that instead. Just saying :D LOL (And I'm bitching in the most loving manner possible)**

**Damn that was fun...I need to call up my brothers, it's been too long since I've had a good, long argument and we can go for hours when we get on a good subject**

**Disclaimer: SM-Twilight**

**BPOV**

_Stop being such a baby. Just pick up the phone. Dial the number._

I stared at it a bit longer, hoping the whole dialing and calling thing would magically happen on its own. Huh. It didn't.

I was still staring at the the stupid phone so hard that when it rang it scared me so much I screamed and nearly wet myself. I grabbed it quickly, slapping myself in the forehead with my free hand. "Hello?"

"Bella?" Renee sounded slightly confused, like usual.

"Heeeey, Mom." _Who knew magic really existed? Oh, right, werewolves, I knew.  
_

"I had the funniest feeling that you needed to talk to me."

I lowered my left hand to study the ring yet again. I just couldn't stop looking at it. Paul had picked the prettiest ring. It was a combination of white and yellow gold, twining around each other with a perfect little round diamond. It wasn't flashy and it wasn't big. When I saw the two different colors of gold I thought of the imprint, of he and I bound together.

When I first saw the ring, I was furious that he had spent money on an engagement ring knowing that I didn't want to get married at our age. And then suddenly we were yelling at each other, like always. It was crazy, but somehow while he was calling me an idiot and throwing around f-bombs, I realized that I never wanted to be separated from this man. And while I could see that he was angry, I could also see that he was hurting. He felt rejected. At that realization, my chest felt like it was caving in. I couldn't stand the thought of Paul hurting. If a little ring was such a big deal to him, why was I refusing it? I mean, I knew I was going to say yes eventually anyway, so why not now? We could have a long engagement, right? So why not compromise on the engagement now, to reassure him about where we stood and we could worry about the actual wedding date later?

"Bella? Are you there?"

"Oh! Sorry. Yeah. I was actually just about to call you. How are you today?"

"Good. Phil just had some good news. We're moving to Jacksonville!"

"Where?" I asked in confusion.

"Florida!"

I rubbed my stomach and frowned. "Wow. That seems really far away. When are you moving?"

"As soon as we can rent a place out there. He's got a spot on a team. It's only minor league, but if he does well this season, then he's got a shot at the big time for next season. He'll have to stay in a motel until we can find a rent house though."

I felt tears coming to my eyes. "That sounds like a good career move for him."

She must have heard the sadness in my voice. "And of course, I'll be building up a ton of frequent flyer miles, coming out to visit my little grandbabies. How are they doing?"

"They are growing every day. And stretching as much as possible. I swear, they are trying to break my ribs."

Renee laughed. "Well, they're probably going to be big and strong like their daddy."

I almost laughed along with her, until I remembered that Paul wasn't really their daddy. Sometimes I forgot.

"So, is there anything new going on in La Push?" Renee asked. "Are you managing to stay sane stuck on bed rest?"

"Actually, something new did happen last night." I mentally prepared myself for a moment. She may have reacted well to the pregnancy, but Renee had always insisted that no one should get married until they were twenty-five at the very least. "Paul asked me to marry him. And I said yes."

Renee paused, like she wasn't sure she really heard what I had said. Just when I was sure she was going to start scolding me, she shocked me again. "Well, I can't say that it surprises me. I knew that his heart was completely lost when I saw the way he looked at you over Christmas."

I leaned my head back against my pillow and let the tears of relief fall. Renee didn't condemn me. She was ok with this. If both of my parents were ok with this, then maybe everything really would work out.

"So you don't think I'm too young and that we should wait?"

"Bella, you have never been young. You were forty when you were born. You have been mature for as long as I have known you."

_Ha, if you had just seen the way I have acted since I got here, especially around Paul, then you would change that opinion._

"Do you love him?"

My lips pulled into an involuntary smile. "I do."

"Will you love him in thirty years?"

"You know, I truly believe that I will." My voice sounded surprised even to my own ears.

"Even if he leaves all his dirty clothes on the living room floor, next to his dirty dishes? And he never puts the toilet seat down? And he never takes the trash out?"

I laughed. "Even then. He does a lot of that now."

"Well. There you go. You know you can handle it. You'll be fine. Just keep the communication open. As long as you communicate everything will be fine."

"Thanks, Mom." I wiped the moisture from my cheeks. "So. Other than trying to move, is there anything going on down there?"

"Oh, well I doubt you've heard about Randy."

I braced myself for the wave of fear. But nothing happened. No fear. No reaction. Huh. "No. I hadn't heard anything about him. Why?"

"Apparently, a couple nights after your birthday he was jumped by a gang in an alley. He was so badly beaten he was traumatized. They had to put the poor boy in the mental ward for awhile. He kept saying werewolves had attacked him. He's better now thank goodness. They never did catch those gang members though. I'm so glad we're moving away from here, and that you are safely out of this city. It's so rough here."

My mouth was hanging open. Jake and Paul had to have done this. They had disappeared the night of my birthday and they were gone for three days. No one would say where they went and they wouldn't answer either when they returned. I frowned as I remembered the time. The entire three days I had felt bad, like I had a chest cold. No matter how hard I tried, I felt like I just could not get enough air. Like there was something heavy pressing on my chest. Could it be because Paul had been so far away?

Renee was probably waiting on me to make a comment. "Poor Randy."

"Yes. I've heard that he has almost learned to walk again. So his recovery is going well."

I threw a hand over my mouth. _Oh my. They really messed him up. _I had to get off the phone. I could not continue to talk about Randy without losing it. I was going to laugh and she was going to think I was a heartless bitch. It was just the shock, but it was still an inappropriate reaction.

"Hey, Mom. The girls are really pushing on my bladder. Mind if I let you go?" I managed to push out the words with a decent impersonation of a calm tone.

"Of course not! I'll talk to you later, Honey. Love you!"

"Love you to."

I made a quick pit stop in the rest room and then lumbered my way down the hall to the couch. I was sick of being in my little room. And the living room was just as bad. Ugh. Why hadn't Paul asked me to marry him back when I was still skinny and cute enough to get married? I could be in my own house now instead of in Charlie's. _Because you would have asked Charlie to please shoot the crazy stalker for you? Back when you were still skinny and cute you and Paul weren't exactly on speaking terms, Bella._

I settled on the couch and pulled out a text-book. I was so ready to be finished with school. The tribal school was being really accommodating though. They took it on faith that I did all of the reading and went over all of the problems in the book on my own. As long as I passed the tests administered on Fridays by a teacher willing to stop by Charlie's house after school, then I could continue to home-school myself.

"Knock, knock," Jake said as he pushed the door open.

"Why aren't you in school?"

"My turn to patrol, Sister."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. "Sister?"

He nudged his head in my direction, an uncomfortable look on his face. His voice was grudging. "Yeah. You're marrying my pack-brother. Kinda makes you my sister now."

He looked so sad. Maternal feelings started to well up in me. If I could have, I would have jumped off the couch and pulled him into a hug. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be doing any jumping anytime soon. Also, I had a feeling that no matter what his mouth said, his body would take a hug to mean something else. So I stayed where I was.

"I guess that does make me your sister. So. If you are supposed to be on patrol, why are you here?"

He shrugged. "Lunch?"

I rolled my eyes. "You know where the kitchen is. Bring me something."

"Sure, sure."

I could hear him rattling around in the kitchen. My mind drifted back to what Renee had told me about Randy. Jake and Paul had gone after him for me. On one hand, that made me feel good. That they had felt the need to get revenge for me. On the other, weren't they supposed to protect people? Randy was a person. He was a shitty person, but still. He was so vulnerable against them, and they broke him. I never asked them to go beat anybody up for me. I just wanted to get away from him.

"Hey, Jake? How'd you and Paul like Phoenix?"

All sound in the kitchen abruptly stopped. "Uh. What? I didn't quite hear you, Bells."

"Cut the shit, Jacob Black."

He walked into the room and handed me a plate with a sandwich before taking a seat in Charlie's recliner. His own plate held four sandwiches, and they all looked like they held double meat. He leaned forward and set the plate on the floor.

"How'd you find out? Did Paul say something?"

"No. And I'm going to have a little chat with him about that when he gets home tonight."

Jake's lips tilted up the slightest bit in the corner.

"Don't smirk. I'm still marrying him. Why did you guys do it?"

Jake's grin morphed into an incredulous expression. "What? He beat the shit out of you! Repeatedly! The real question is how the fuck I kept Paul from killing him! I barely managed, Bella. I've never seen him that angry. When that prick started talking about how you deserved it, Paul just lost it."

I drew in a shaky breath. "Oh, poor Paul."

Jake chuckled dejectedly, leaning down for his plate. "Yeah. Poor, Paul."

We ate in silence for a long moment. Jake seemed to be deep in thought as he chewed. That wasn't like Jake. Usually he was a happy person, always cracking jokes. He was a more go-with-the-flow type.

"What are you thinking about so hard?"

Jake shook his head. "I don't think I could take it."

"Take what?"

"Knowing there's a leech out to get my mate." He was staring at his sandwich, so he missed the way my whole expression froze for a moment. "I mean, I know the whole pack is watching. We're going to make sure this Victoria bitch doesn't get to you. But I'd go crazy. Especially the way she keeps playing with us. She's psychotic."

I carefully lowered my eyes to my food. Paul had some serious explaining to do. I had no idea what Jake was talking about. But it sounded like there was something serious going on and it directly involved me. I couldn't ask Jake about it though. He seemed to think I knew exactly what was going on. He would just try to use the information to weaken my relationship with Paul. How long had Paul been hiding this from me?

_There is a psychotic vampire out to get me? Wait, her name is Victoria? As in, Aunt Victoria?_ His reaction to her card made a lot more sense now. I felt my heart starting to race and knew Jake would be able to hear it. I had to make myself calm down. I had to think about something else for now. I could freak out about how I was going to die later, when he left.

I forced my mind onto a different track. "So I told Renee about the engagement. She took it surprisingly well."

Jake grunted, apparently not that excited to talk about my impending marriage. Shocking.

"Charlie didn't seem too thrilled this morning. He was even less thrilled when he heard that Paul will be sleeping in my room from now on."

Jake's jaw clenched. This was kind of fun actually, turning the tables and being able to make him uncomfortable for once. For the longest time it had been the other way around. He may not have been doing it intentionally, but every word he spoke and every gesture he made broadcast his feelings for me. And I had hated every moment of it. How was I supposed to deal with that? Even if I didn't have Paul in my life I wouldn't have welcomed Jake's attention. Jake had never been anything more than a friend and he wouldn't have become more than that.

"Charlie will just have to get used to it though. I don't think he could get Paul back on the couch even with his gun at this point. I think Charlie could even shoot him and Paul would still end up back in my bed."

Jake chewed his food slowly before muttering an answer. "Yeah. Probably."

I decided to have a little mercy on him and turned my attention to finishing my sandwich in silence.

Jake surprised me by speaking up next, even continuing on the subject. "So…do you guys have a date or anything?"

"We haven't really settled on one. I know I don't want to be the size of a barn when I walk down the aisle though."

Jake grinned. "You'd look good either way, Bells. Don't let that worry you."

"Jake. A girl does not envision her dream wedding to include a beautiful white muumuu." I shook my head, the previous night's events playing through my head. Something Paul had said plaguing me.

"Hey, Jake? Paul said something last night. Something kind of personal. Can you answer a question for me?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "I don't know, Bells. If it's really personal maybe you should talk to him about it."

"Please, Jake."

He sighed. "What?"

"He mentioned something about being a bastard?"

Jake nodded slowly. "And? Is that your question? Paul's dad took off before he was born. I'm not sure if he even knows the guy."

"It bothers him a lot doesn't it?"

Jake shrugged. "He got into a lot of fights about it when he was a kid. But he got into a lot of fights about everything. You know Paul."

Jake stood, his plate now empty. "Time for me to head back out there. Run some laps round Charlie's place." He patted his stomach. "Gotta keep my girlish figure."

I did my best to keep my expression pleasant, or at least neutral as he deposited our dishes in the sink and made his was back outside. Once he was out of the house and the door was closed, I could safely stew. I had so much to think about I wasn't even sure where to start. .HELL? There was someone trying to kill me? Let's start there. That seemed pretty fucking big. That was the kind of thing a girl needed to know. And the best part was, the man I was supposed to marry, the man I was supposed to be able to trust with my life, knew and chose not to tell me. That did not speak of trust to me. Trust was communication. What he was doing here was the exact opposite. What kind of excuse could he possibly have to offer to explain himself?

Despite the sense of betrayal eating at me, I couldn't help but feel sorrow for him as well. Paul was hurting. He wanted to give my children something he never had. And now he wouldn't be able to do that. There was no way that we could get married before the twins were born. I was still on bed rest. I couldn't stand up and get married right now. Even if I wouldn't look ridiculous with my huge belly, I wouldn't be able to stand that long. Theoretically, I could go to the courthouse and have the judge perform the ceremony. But, that didn't seem fair to Renee or Charlie. Or the pack. Shouldn't they all be involved? They were all family. They should have a part in this too. I just didn't see how it would work. Besides, how much legitimacy would it offer for our wedding anniversary to come within a couple months of the twin's birth anyway?

I hadn't realized how long I had been thinking until the door opened and Paul started to walk in. He was covered in dust and sweat from the construction job, but he still made my heart immediately skip. His face lit up as he saw me. Then I remembered that I was mad at him.

"Why didn't you tell me a bloodsucker was trying to kill me?"

Paul's smile died. His face turned to stone. "What happened? Did she send something else to you?"

"No, now answer the question. Why didn't you tell me? Think I couldn't handle it? Weak little Bella doesn't need to know what's going on in her own life?"

Paul finally stepped all the way into the house, shutting the door behind himself. "Bella, the doctor said you weren't supposed to be stressed. I think knowing someone is trying to kill you is too fucking stressful."

I threw my hands up. "Yeah! It's fucking stressful! But you can't hide these kinds of things from me! This is my life, you can't control it."

"I'm not trying to control it! I'm trying to save it!"

I crossed my arms and glared at him. "I know that! Now! I should have known all along!"

We glared at each other from across the room, both breathing heavily. Paul waited a few seconds before stalking over to grab my face in his hands. "I can't lose you or the babies. I love you all too much to lose you."

"I love you too, Paul. But you have to tell me what's going on. Even if you think I don't want to hear it. If we're going to have a healthy relationship, we have to communicate. We can't have a good marriage if you hide things from me. We have to be honest with each other."

A smile spread across his lips. He pulled my face to his, and pressed his lips to mine. I lost myself for a while there, the anger quickly morphing into something else entirely. Then he pulled away with the biggest smile I had ever seen on his face.

"Do you know that's the first time you've actually said that you love me?"

I frowned. "It is?"

He nodded.

"Well, I do love you, Paul."

He laughed and kissed me again before he pulled back with a more serious look. "Ok. Who told you?"

Damn. I didn't want to tell him but after my little tantrum about honesty I kind of had to. "Don't be mad, ok? Jake did. He didn't mean to. He seemed to think I already knew, and I let him keep talking."

Paul leaned back on his heels and studied my face. "So he stopped by?"

"He said something about being on patrol and he stopped by for lunch."

Paul looked angry. "We have someone watching you at all times. Like a bodyguard. Today was his turn. He wasn't supposed to come in here though."

"I think he really came in because of the engagement. I think he wanted some closure or something on that. It was a little weird."

Paul snorted. "I bet. How'd that go?"

I smirked at him. "Oh, it was fun. I made sure to let him know how we would be sharing a bed from now on."

"That's my girl."

**A/N: Hmm...I've drafted up the rest of this story...I need something new to work on. Do you guys have any ideas for me? What do you want next? I need a plot, a jumping off point, a one-liner to get my ass in gear, something...my boys will be with their PaPa tomorrow night and my husband is camping for three nights, so I'm going to have some prime writing time.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**A/N: About that fucking typo in chapter 15...I fixed it and added to my A/N...then re-loaded the chapter and the damn typo was still there but the changes to the A/N were also there. So I said fuck it. The typo stands because I'm not uploading the fucking chapter 3 times. It's really just words that are left out, so it's not that big a deal.  
**

**PS: this is super short but had to be done...you'll see why in the post-chapter A/N**

**Disclaimer: Twilight-SM**

**BPOV**

I stared at the shadows on the ceiling, my brow furrowed in thought. Something was bothering me. It was just on the edge of consciousness, but I couldn't quite grasp it. The troublesome feeling had been bugging me all afternoon, since Paul had come home and we'd had our little argument about Victoria. Now it had woken me up in the middle of the night. What on earth was it though?

My gaze landed on the ceiling fan and I suddenly wished that it was on instead of off. Paul had his arm thrown over my stomach, resulting in an ever growing, increasingly uncomfortable sweat stain. He was a furnace, which had definite benefits during the winter. But he was going to be impossible to sleep with in the middle of the summer. My eyes widened as I realized what the problem was. Maybe because I hadn't been trying so hard to think of it, it had finally popped into my head. How stupid was I? I turned a glare to the man sleeping beside me. Using all my strength I smacked the arm that was thrown across my stomach. Paul jerked into an upright position, his head turning quickly like he was trying to look in every direction at once.

"What! What's wrong?"

I sat up as well, too angry to even care about doctor's orders at the moment. "What the hell, Paul? Why did you and Jake think it was ok to beat the shit out of Randy?"

The tension drained from Paul's body as he turned to look at me. "Are you serious? You woke me up for that?"

I crossed my arms. "Yes. Now answer the damn question! You attacked a human being! You aren't supposed to do that!"

Paul snorted. "I'd hardly call that fucker a human being."

"Well I would. And no matter how awful he was you still shouldn't have gone down there. You almost killed him!"

The whole bed started to shake. Paul quickly jumped up and started to pace. He kept shooting me angry glares. "How many times did he almost kill you, Bella? And you wanted me to just sit up here and pretend that it never happened? You wanted me to let him get away with it? Fuck no! Fucker had to pay for what he did."

I rolled my eyes. "Don't be a drama queen. He never almost killed me. Ok, I had a few concussions. And he broke my arm once…but he never _almost killed me._"

I looked back at Paul to see him staring at me with his mouth hanging open. He had stopped pacing and was standing still. Well, that wasn't accurate. His feet were not moving. The rest of him was moving quite a bit, as the shaking had gotten worse.

"He broke your fucking _arm_?"

I actually felt all the blood draining from my face. I never knew that a person could feel that. Possibly it had been a very big mistake to let that little detail out.

Paul turned around. I could hear him muttering to himself under his breath. "Fuck…I can't leave now…babies are almost here…kill me if I'm not here when she's in labor…maybe Jake…kill him"

I jumped off the bed and ran over to him. I grabbed his arm. "No one is going to kill Randy. That is an order!"

Paul turned to me. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I'll get Sam to issue an Alpha order if I need to. You two have punished Randy enough. You almost killed him once, there is no reason to go back and finish the job. He's been through enough already."

Paul's face twisted and his eyes filled with pain. "Bella, he hurt you. He put his hands on you and….hurt you in ways that no one ever should even think about. It makes me crazy to even think about. I can't stay sane knowing that the fucker is out there living his life after everything he did to you."

I placed my hands on his cheeks and looked into his eyes. "Baby, I don't care about what he did to me. He has no power over me anymore. You have to stop thinking about him. You do realize that you're giving him a measure of control over you and he's not even here, right? Besides, he's not living his life. He's been in a mental facility and in physical therapy since your little visit. He's still trying to pick up the pieces of his own life. I seriously doubt his life is ever going to be the same. A person can't go through the kind of experience he's been through and remain unchanged." I frowned and shuddered. "I can only hope this hasn't made him an even sicker son of a bitch."

Paul leaned his forehead against mine and spoke in a strained voice. "I don't know if I can do that."

I leaned forward enough to kiss him quickly. "Please try. It will only make me feel guilty if you wind up killing him."

He growled and encircled me in his arms. "Dammit. Now I can't kill him. I can't do something that I know is going to make you feel bad."

I sighed and felt the stress leaving my body at his words. Paul felt it too and lifted his head.

"Hey, you aren't supposed to be standing! Get your ass back in bed, Woman!" He gently spun me around and pushed me toward the bed, giving my butt a quick swat as I started for the bed.

**A/N: kenhat, here you go...yeah, I completely dropped the ball on that one. Obviously I worked it into the story that Bella just got a little distracted with the whole vampire trying to kill her thing...but really, I lost track of that little nugget and forgot to write it in and it won't fit neatly into the rest of the chapters in the story. I either had to leave it out altogether or make a really short chapter. Thanks sooooo much for mentioning it in a review. I need those little kicks in the pants every so often. SO, I sat my ass down and wrote this out and since it's so fucking short, I posted it on the same night instead of agonizing over it for a couple of days to make sure every little detail is right. So, um, if you notice anything wrong...just pretend you don't...**


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**A/N: Remember that human sneaking around Charlie's house...you'll find out why in this here chapter.**

**Disclaimer: SM-Twilight**

**BPOV**

"Mail call!"

I opened my eyes to see a cascade of envelopes falling toward my stomach. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Jake's form disappearing into the kitchen. For the past four weeks, since he'd unintentionally let me know about Victoria hunting me, he always made it a point to stop in for a snack when he was on Bella bodyguard duty. I sorted through the mail quickly, still groggy from my nap. My hand froze when I came across a piece of mail with my name on it. Now that I knew the last piece of mail I had received was from a vampire trying to kill me, I was a little freaked out to be receiving another envelope with my name on it. But surely Jake would have smelled leech on it, right? And he would have freaked. So this had to be safe. Right?

So why did my hands shake when I opened the envelope? Call it female intuition. I pulled out photographs of Paul and I asleep on my bed. The photographer had clearly been standing outside my window, because the blinds were in the way. But we could be still be seen. The room was a mess, with baby shower gifts everywhere. _What the hell?_

Why would someone take photos of me and Paul sleeping? I flipped through the photos quickly, trying to make sense of them. They were all the same though. Just me and Paul sleeping. It looked like the day of the baby shower. It had to be because we had finished organizing everything the next morning. We had to. The room was too tiny to leave it in that condition any longer. Finally after the last photograph was a typed note.

_Bella, Your mate can try to protect you. But as you can see, I can come to get you whenever I want. I'll see you soon. – Victoria._

I felt like I couldn't get any air. How was this possible? How had she gotten this close to me and Paul? Paul would have smelled her, even in his sleep, and woken up. The wolves on patrol would have caught her. If they couldn't keep her from peaking in my fucking window while we took a nap and taking a whole fucking album worth of pictures then my life was forfeit. I was going to die.

"Bella?" Jake was suddenly by my side. "Bells? Are you ok? What's wrong? Are you in labor?'

I shoved the photos and note his way with shaking hands.

He took them from me with a curious expression, which quickly turned to rage. His whole body began to shake. The photos and note fell from his hands, drifting to the ground. Without a word he turned and ran from the house. I heard the sound of his clothes ripping into shreds as he phased. I stared out the open door and tried to wrap my thoughts around what was happening. My hands curled protectively around my belly as I continued to hyperventilate.

_First, stop over-reacting! She's not in your living room! Breathe!_ I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing. Slow breath in through the nose. Out through the mouth. I was even managing to make my body obey until something hellacious grabbed me around the stomach and squeezed. I jerked my eyes open, actually expecting to find the bloodsucker torturing me. I was absolutely shocked to find myself alone.

After a few seconds I realized that the muscles under my hands were as hard as rock. _Shit._

_ Ok. Breathe. It could be a really strong Braxton Hicks contraction. Really fucking strong Braxton Hicks._ I rubbed my stomach as the hardness slowly subsided. "There, there. Everything is ok. Mommy was just playing."

I kept my breathing slow and steady and tried not to move at all. Through sheer stubbornness I kept my thoughts off the contents of the envelope I had received. I would not think about anything stressful. Nothing going on here. Nothing to see folks. Just a lazy afternoon. Not even going to do homework today. Nope. Just going to take it easy. Maybe finish that nap Jake interrupted. I'd been having a really good dream too. Paul and I had just been getting started on some really good stuff. Stuff the stupid doctor wouldn't let me do now because it might start early labor.

_Fuck!_ My stomach seized up again. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. _Wow this hurts. Is it supposed to hurt this much?_

"I'm sorry, I lost my temper. I had to go calm down." Jake's voice seemed to be getting louder, like he was walking closer as he talked.

"Hey, you ok, Bells? You know we aren't going to let her get to you right?"

The pain faded and my stomach started to loosen up again. I opened my eyes to find Jake staring at me, rubbing his head and still talking. "And that wasn't even her taking the pictures. Paul caught the scent of some human who made it all the way up to your window. She has to have a human accomplice. Or maybe she hired someone. Probably some cheap private investigator. Paul was really pissed that he couldn't catch the guy before he escaped. So, you know, she's just trying to scare you, make it seem like she can just waltz right in and grab you. But she can't."

I sent him a wobbly smile. "Great."

She hadn't been standing at my window. That did take a lot of the stress away. Would have been fucking great to know _before_ the stress threw me into labor. But, maybe now that I did know, the pains would stop. I mean, I wasn't under the same stress now, so maybe? I could hope, right?

"I'm gonna grab a snack. Want one?"

"Sure."

I stared up at the ceiling, concentrating on not stressing out. Which made me even more stressed. Now I was stressed about not stressing. I had to stay calm! I could not freak out. Cool and collected.

Jake reappeared holding a plate out. I pushed off the couch, trying to sit up a little to eat but collapsed back down with a gasp, grasping my belly. "Fuck!"

"What! What's wrong?"

I met his eyes with a grimace and spoke through gritted teeth. "I'm kinda in labor."

His eyes rounded. "Oh shit. Oh shit. What do I do? Fuck. Uh."

He started looking around the room frantically, like he expected a doctor to pop up from behind Charlie's recliner and yell "Surprise!" He even turned a few circles. Finally, about the time the contraction started to ease up he ran to the kitchen and dropped the plates on the table before running back to me.

"We gotta get you to the hospital."

"That's probably a good idea."

"Let me call Paul. He'll kill me if we don't wait for him."

I nodded. "We're supposed to have a little while this early on, but I don't want to wait too long. Call him and tell him to meet us there."

**PPOV**

It wasn't break time yet when Bella's ring tone filled the air. _Shit, is it time?_

That was always my first thought when I heard her ring tone now. The doctor had warned us after her thirty-fourth week that she could go into labor at any point. Her body was so small and the twins were so big that it wasn't going to take much to kick it off. I could feel the eyes on me as I dropped my cordless drill on the ground and yanked my phone out of my pocket.

"Yeah, Babe?"

"I'm taking Bella to the hospital. She's in labor." Jake's voice sounded panicky.

My heart rate doubled by the time he finished speaking. "I'll meet you there."

I shoved the phone back in my pocket and spun around, looking for Joseph. I couldn't see him on this side of the house so I started circling, forcing myself to jog at a normal human pace. Finally I found the foreman on the far side of the house, yelling at the new tile guy about how he'd been doing his job.

"Well I don't care about how you tiled back in Seattle. Here we do it my way! You finish one wall before you move on to the next."

"Joseph, Bella's in labor, I gotta go."

He waved me on, still focused on the poor guy in front of him.

Or maybe not so poor. "But if I do it my way I don't have to keep getting up and down on my knees. I can do all the bottom ones at the same time, I just go around in a circle, then keep moving up and around as I go. That way I spend less time on the ground!"

I rolled my eyes and turned to go. Idiot needed to learn when to argue and when to do as the boss said. _Yeah, cause you've never argued with Sam._

Before I took more than two steps Quil and Embry stepped out of the forest, both appearing paler than usual. "Paul, we need you."

I frowned. "Jake called me already, I know Bella's in labor."

Their eyes widened. Quil shook his head. "It's not about that."

Embry looked around at the construction crew, all of whom were shamelessly eavesdropping. "It's about Victoria and her gang. They're making a move. We need to go take care of that now."

_Fuck! Shit. What do I do? Shit. My mate needs me, but if I don't take care of the fucking bloodsucker hell-bent on killing her then she won't need me for long. I have to go with them. Fuck. Bella's gonna kill me if I'm not there for the birth._

Joseph stepped up next to me, clapping me on the shoulder. "You boys go take care of the vampires. We'll head over to the school, make sure the kids are safe just in case any get past you."

Quil, Embry and I all turned to him.

"Uh, what?" I wasn't capable of a more eloquent response. What the hell? He wasn't supposed to know about the leeches.

Josh, one of the roofers, nodded. "Yeah. The shed out behind the school has some flame-throwers. Contingency plan. We'll make sure the kids are safe. You guys go take 'em out."

I couldn't form a coherent thought. "What the fuck?"

Joseph frowned at me. "Give us some fucking credit. You guys turn into giant fucking wolves. You think no one has noticed? That kind of shit is fucking hard not to notice. It's the worst kept secret in history. You must think the whole tribe is fucking retarded not to know. The only ones who don't know are the kids and teenagers and that's just because they think they know everything already. Now go do your job."

"Uh. Yeah. Ok." I turned back to the guys to see that they were just as stunned as I was.

The entire adult community was aware of our little secret, and had been for who knew how long. I felt like a fucking idiot. Why didn't they say anything? Why did they let us keep living in secret? This would have been so much easier if they had just let us know that we could stop hiding it already. I felt myself getting angrier and angrier. Combined with the knowledge that I was about to miss the birth of my children because some red headed bitch was trying to kill my mate, I had no problem phasing. In fact, I didn't even bother to move into the woods first. I didn't bother to pull my clothes off either.

"Shit!" Joseph jumped away from me, his voice shaky. "You didn't have to do that so fucking close to me."

_What the hell do you think you're doing? _Sam's voice was filled with panic. _You just exposed our secret to the entire construction crew!_

_ They all knew already._ I replayed the entire conversation we'd had with Joseph quickly.

_Well…fuck me._

_ No thanks. But you can ask Emily. She'd probably be more than willing. Let's get this over with. Bella's in labor. What's the plan?_

Quil and Embry phased and we started running.

"_The Cullens called. Apparently Victoria has been waiting for Bella to go into labor. She's managed to put Charlie's house under surveillance somehow. It may be bugged. Or a hidden camera set up outside. As soon as Jacob put her in the car and headed for the hospital she made the decision to attack and the Cullen's psychic saw it. They'll be coming in from Seattle and headed for the reservation hospital."_

_ "Why wait for her to go into labor? That doesn't make any sense."_ I replied.

_"I don't know. The only reasoning I can see is that she expects us all to be more distracted because of it. And you will be. You're distracted right now."_

It was true. I was thinking about her. Mostly focused on how she must be feeling. I was fairly sure that I could feel ghost pains of the contractions at regular intervals. But also I was fucking angry that I was going to miss the birth of the twins after promising Bella that I wouldn't.

"_You have to focus, Paul. If you're distracted, you give the leech a chance of actually beating us"._

_ "Like Hell. I'm not distracted. I'll take her out."_ Embry assured.

_"We've got this."_ Jared assured. _"It won't take any time at all. Keep your head in the game and you'll have plenty of time to get back for the birth. First time labor takes forever. Right?"_

_ "We should be coming up on them soon. The Cullens said their numbers are down to around nineteen. Jake is in the hospital room with Bella and I sent Collin and Brady to patrol around the hospital just in case. That leaves seven of us and seven Cullens. Remember what Jasper taught us. Don't let them get their arms around us. And don't go for the obvious moves."_

My nose started twitching as the scent of bleach and sugar started to reach me. We were getting close to intercepting them. They really were running straight for the hospital. There was no subterfuge. They were just going to try to overwhelm it. It would be a literal blood bath if we let any of them get past us. I shuddered at the thought of a newborn leech let loose to play in a hospital. All those innocent people, a buffet in the eyes of a leech. And my beautiful Bella unable to defend herself, unable to run.

Rage poured through me. I started to pull away from the pack, my legs pumping harder, covering more ground.

_"Stay with us, Paul" _Sam ordered.

I reigned myself in unhappily, but I knew it was for my own good. One werewolf was not going to be much good against an army of newborns, no matter how pissed off he was.

We broke into a clearing just as the newborns came into it from the other side. They hesitated as they saw us, but not for long. A normal human wouldn't have been able to see the pause in their steps. Then again, a normal human probably wouldn't have been able to see them moving at all, they were running so fast.

_ "Spread out. You know what to do. Remember, the Cullens are sneaking up behind them, try __not to get carried away and take out our help guys. Keep their scent in mind."_ Sam ordered as we charged.

**A/N: Gasp! A cliffhanger...why yes, I am an evil bitch...he-he-he **


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**AN: I'm apologizing in advance for all the POV jumping in this chapter...had to be done...please don't hurt me...unless you hurt me in a _good_ way ;)**

**Disclaimer: Twilight=SM**

**BPOV**

"Where the hell is he?" I asked.

We had been at the hospital for an hour now. I was in one of those hospital gowns that guaranteed everyone in the room was getting mooned every time I got out of bed. I had the monitors strapped to my belly to keep track of the contractions and the babies' heart beats. I had the blood pressure cuff on. And let me tell you, that sucker was getting a work out. Paul still hadn't arrived.

Jacob darted his head out into the hall and came back in with a worried look. "I don't know, Bells."

I was going to cuss him out again, but another painful contraction distracted me. I clenched my hands on the railing of my bed and closed my eyes. Panic tore through me. What was I going to do without Paul here? I couldn't have the babies without Paul here. He needed to be here. He needed to be here to help me breathe. He needed to cut the chords. He needed to help me figure out what the hell I was going to name them. He was the fucking father. He should be here.

Guilt washed over me. He had wanted one thing before I went into labor. One lousy thing and my pride had prevented that. Who cared that I would look like a whale if I was able to make the man I loved happy? I should have married him while I had the chance. There had to be a reason he wasn't here now, and there was only one thing I could think of that would keep him away from this. Victoria.

What if I never saw him again?

Fear overwhelmed me as the pain started to fade away. Paul could die. I might never see him again. What had I been thinking to waste the time I had with him? Anger chased away the fear. Well, I wasn't going to be wasting any more time.

"Jake, you need to phase and figure out what the hell is going on."

He turned to me with surprise. "This isn't exactly the time or place."

"I don't give a fuck. It's a big room. Nobody else is in here. We need to make sure Paul is safe. Then we're going to have to get a preacher in here because I'm going to marry that man before I have these babies."

"Uh, Bella, I don't think you're going to have that option." Charlie spoke up from the corner.

I turned to him with a glare. "And why not?"

He sent me a sympathetic smile. "Honey, you need more than just a preacher. It wouldn't be legal."

"Well find a way to make it fucking legal! I'm not pushing till I'm married!"

Charlie rubbed his face as Jake started to pace. "Bells, you have to have a license, which requires a blood test. And I'll have to sign special paperwork since you're underage."

I growled at him. "We're in a fucking hospital. They have lots of fucking needles. Let them do the blood test. And you're right here to sign the special paperwork. Get your ass in gear and get it done. Jake, get all wolfy and find my man."

Charlie stood to his feet. "Jake, let me stand outside the door, make sure no one comes in."

As soon as Charlie was outside the door Jake started stripping. I averted my eyes. After a few moments I heard a low growl fill the room. I turned to see Jake pacing the room, his head slung low and the hairs on his back standing straight up. What the hell? Then he cocked his head to the side, went deathly silent and stared at the window for a long moment. Suddenly he bolted to the side, slinging himself up against the side of the wall and stared up at the window.

What was the doing? He was frozen, his focus intent on the window. What was happening? A flash of red caught my eye and I turned my attention from Jake to the window just as someone pulled it open. The figure was pale and breathtakingly beautiful with bright red, wild hair. Her eyes held a crazy gleam, and they were focused on me as she stepped through the open window. This had to be Victoria. I opened my mouth to scream.

**PPOV**

Jasper had drilled it into us during our little training session that the newborns would be looking for the head-on attacks, and that we couldn't let them get their arms around us. So that first charge was a little dicey. I mean, we were headed straight for each other. It was a little fucking difficult to avoid ending up right in their arms. Some of those fuckers were _fast._ But we were faster. We darted in and out, spinning to attack from behind, from the side, from anywhere but directly in front. We ganged up on them. We feinted.

When the Cullens appeared behind them it was all out chaos. The newborns didn't know what to do. They had expected us. Victoria must have prepared them for giant wolves. But if she had any idea that the Cullens were around, she certainly never thought they would step in to help their natural enemy.

What bothered me was the fact that the red-headed bitch was nowhere to be seen. I kept enough attention on my surroundings to keep from being smashed by the fucking leeches around me but I was searching frantically for the bitch trying to kill my Bella. But I couldn't see her anywhere. I couldn't smell her anywhere. Where was she?

Then I saw her in Collin and Brady's minds.

My heart stopped.

_Go!_ Sam released me.

The only problem was that I was stuck in the middle of a fucking war with vampires and I couldn't get out. I may have gone a little ballistic. I started tearing into the newborns around me in a blind rage, literally digging a tunnel through. I was throwing chunks of leech every which way. There were arms and pieces of legs flying in every direction away from me. Vaguely I recognized the bronze-haired mind-reader pulling one of his sisters out of the way just in time. She screamed an obscenity at me. I didn't pay any attention as I continued making my way toward freedom as he explained the situation, still fighting all the while.

Finally I broke through, twenty minutes later. I could see through Collin and Brady's minds as Victoria fought them both, punishing them with her blows. They weren't strong enough or fast enough to beat her. Then their minds both went black. _Fuck! NO!_ Jake better keep Bella safe. I was too far away still. I pushed myself faster. I had to get there. I couldn't even contemplate the thought of something happening to my Bella. I couldn't go on if something happened to her. If she didn't make it…

"_Jake will keep her safe"_ Sam assured. _"Have faith."_

I made my mind go blank. I couldn't continue on that train of thought. My brothers still fighting the newborns couldn't afford the distraction. Then I felt Jake phase. "_Thank fuck! Jake, __Victoria is coming! She just took out Collin and Brady. She's probably almost there if she isn't there already."_

I saw the hospital room through Jake's eyes. He paused to evaluate the situation. He could smell the leech coming closer. The smell was coming from outside, so she would come through the window. He jumped to the wall, hiding just under the window. Breathing deeply and calmly he waited.

_"Don't worry. I'm going to take out the bitch. She won't get Bella." _Jake assured.

He didn't think after that, he just waited, focusing on the window. I could feel his calm intensity. Something about it reassured me. If I couldn't be there to keep Bella safe then Jake would be the one I would choose to take my place. He loved her nearly as much as I did. I knew he would give his life to protect her.

_"Damn straight."_ He replied to my thought.

The window opened and I held my breath as Victoria stepped into the room with my precious Bella. A snarl ripped from my throat as she started to step past Jacob. Stupid bitch didn't even stop to look for him. She never even saw him coming. Jake jumped up, clamped his teeth around her head and yanked it off like it was a Barbie doll head. Like it was nothing. Relief coursed through me so strong I nearly fell down. It was over. Bella was safe.

**BPOV**

Jake lunged, catching Victoria completely by surprise. She hadn't been able to see him crouching down. He moved so quickly that she had no time to defend herself. One moment she was stepping toward me and the next Jake was ripping her head from her shoulders. The scream died in my throat.

Holy shit.

There was a werewolf standing over a dead vampire in my hospital room. Holy fucking shit. Please let Charlie keep the doctors and nurses out just a little bit longer.

Jake gave a happy little yipping noise.

"You shut the fuck up," I whisper yelled at him. "We do not need anyone coming in here right now. You've got to get her out of here and burn that body. How the fuck are we gonna do that?"

He phased back to human form, flashing me in the process.

"Ugh, Jake," I whined, turning my head quickly. "I did not want to see that."

He chuckled. "You know you did."

Then he grabbed the head and peered out the window. He lobbed the head out and then grabbed the body, chunking it out next.

"Don't you think people are going to notice that?" I asked, my voice edged with panic.

Jake turned back to me with a grin, pulling his clothes on. "Collin and Brady are down there taking care of it." He peered out the window again. "They've already got her into the forest and I don't hear any screaming yet so I don't think anyone saw."

My heart was pounding in my chest. A vampire had just come to kill me personally. Thank goodness I had ordered Jake to phase. Wait. "So where is Paul?"

"He's on his way. The others are still fighting the newborns. But it's going well. They're almost done. Just cleaning up the strays now. Sam released Paul when they saw Collin and Brady fighting her."

I tensed as another wave of pain washed over me. Huh, this one didn't seem as intense. That or I was just getting used to them. I rubbed a hand over my stomach and tried to breathe deeply. Fuck this hurt. _Just imagine how much more it will hurt to actually push them out._ _And you get to do it twice!_

**PPOV**

Jake had phased almost immediately after taking care of Victoria. A minute later Collin and Brady were coming back to consciousness, and they were panicking. I explained that Jake had taken out the vampire and would need some assistance getting it out of the hospital room. Bella probably wouldn't want to explain a decapitated body to the labor and delivery staff. Just as they were heading toward the hospital though Jake started tossing the body out of the building. Way to be inconspicuous. Fucking moron. The boys phased and pulled their clothes on so they could grab it and haul it off for burning before anyone saw it.

I got there a few minutes later only to realize that I had no clothes. I had phased in mine back at the construction site. Shit.

Collin jogged up to me and pulled his shirt and shorts off, holding them out to me. "Here. I'll phase and go help out with the newborns. A few ran off. I'll go help round 'em up."

I pulled the clothes on quickly as the boy phased and ran off. Then I jogged into the hospital. I got Bella's room number and found it quickly. Turns out I could have skipped asking for her room number because Charlie was guarding her door. He smiled with relief as soon as he saw me, a reaction I never thought I would elicit from the man. As soon as I walked into the hospital room, I headed for Jake. He backed up quickly, not sure why I was focused on him. He didn't get far though, the room wasn't that big. I pulled him into a hug.

"Thank you." I pounded his back. A guy cannot give another guy a hug without pounding his back. Not without turning into a pussy anyway.

Jake pounded my back in return, because he didn't want to be a pussy either.

I released him and rushed to Bella's side. I took her hand in mine and examined her face. "How are you, Babe?"

She was studying me, looking me up and down. "I'm ok. How are you? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine. Not a scratch on me." Now. Thank fuck we heal fast. She would have been seriously pissed if she'd seen me half an hour ago.

I leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. "Have the doctors said anything about how much longer it will be?"

"He's supposed to be in to examine me in a few minutes."

I clenched my jaw. Fucker was going to touch her again. I closed my eyes. _Deal with it Paul. There's been a lot of shit about today that you haven't liked._

I turned to Jake. "What was that I saw about pictures and a note?"

Jake frowned. "Whoever it was that made it past the patrol took pictures of you and Bella asleep. Victoria sent them with a note for Bella. That's what set off her labor."

I felt myself starting to shake. If anything went wrong with the birth of my children because of that bitch, I was going to find a way to bring her back to life so I could kill her again. "We're going to hunt that human down and take care of him."

"Damn straight." Jake affirmed.

I felt a cool hand cupping my face. "Shhh. It's ok, Paul."

I turned to see Bella looking at me with worried eyes. My shaking stopped like someone had thrown a fucking switch.

"Everything is going to be ok," Bella reaffirmed in a calming voice. "I've already made it farther than the doctor thought I would. And the threat is gone now. So everything is ok now."

I heard the door shut and turned to see who had come into the room. But I found that Bella and I were now alone. Charlie and Jake had left to give us a few minutes of privacy, which was fucking decent of them.

"Paul, I want to apologize to you." Bella's soft voice drew my gaze back to her.

"For what?" What the fuck did she have to apologize for? I led a fucking vampire to her hospital room while she was in fucking labor. If we had taken care of the bitch the first time she showed up, or any of the other hundred times she'd stopped by the rez to play her twisted little game, Bella wouldn't have been in arms-reach of a fucking bloodsucker.

"I should have married you before I went into labor. I'm really sorry I didn't. You could have died today and all I could think about while you weren't here was that I could have lost you and I never married you. I wasted all that time because of my stupid pride. Just because I didn't want to get married all fat."

I smiled and leaned down to kiss her. "Babe, it's ok. As long as I have you I'm happy. I don't need a wedding ring to be happy."

Hell, I couldn't wear the stupid thing anyway, not until I gave up phasing anyway.

Tears filled her eyes. "Well, I want one."

I chuckled. "It's a little late for that."

She frowned. "That's what Charlie said."

I kissed her forehead. "We'll have plenty of time after the twins are here."

She sighed. "But that defeats the purpose. You wanted to get married before the twins were here because you didn't want them to be bastards. Right? So we need to get married before they're born!"

I felt a little twinge in my heart but I pushed it to the side. It was too late to worry about that now so I would just have to accept that. Right now I needed to focus on cheering my girl up. She didn't need to be worried about me right now. She had more important things to focus on. "Bella, our daughters are not bastards, regardless of when we get married. And I'll explain that to anyone who doesn't understand."

She giggled, lifting my heart once again. It was amazing the hold this woman had on me. The control she had on my mood.

A knock on the door interrupted our talk. Dr. Sweetwater walked in with a smile. "Well folks, I've been watching the monitors from the nurse's station and it appears that your contractions seem to be slowing. I'm going to do a quick examination. But I think we may have had a little case of false labor here."

"But, the contractions hurt so much!" Bella argued.

The doctor chuckled. "False labor is just as painful. It's practice labor. Your contractions were regular for quite a while but they petered out. Paul, if you'd just step into the hall for a moment?"

I walked out, my mind spinning. So the twins weren't being born right now? I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. This had been one fucked up day. Was it really only early afternoon? I felt like I'd crammed two or three days into the past eighteen hours. I'd run the overnight patrol. Then I went to work on the construction job. Then the call about labor and then the two jackass brothers coming to get me for the newborn war. Then the whole Victoria and Jake ordeal. I was dead on my feet. What I could really use was a nap, but my mate was possibly in labor. Although that was even in question now.

The doctor opened the door and called me back into the room. "It looks like Bella is dilated to a two. She hasn't had a contraction in half an hour. Bella, if you don't have any more contractions for an hour I'm going to release you. You could still go into labor at any time now, so I want you to pay close attention to the signals your body is sending you. Remember that lower back pain is a symptom that many women miss. I'll see you two later on if not today. Have a good afternoon."

I sat down on the edge of the bed and grabbed her hand. As badly as I was ready to meet the girls, I really didn't want her to have another contraction any time soon. I was too tired to deal with anything else that afternoon. All I wanted to do was curl up in bed with Bella and take a nap. In fact, that bed looked just big enough.

"Scoot over."

She sent me a small smile and did as I asked. Ok, it wasn't really a request. But she knew that I didn't mean to command her, I meant to ask. I curled up behind her, threw an arm over her stomach and closed my eyes, sighing into her hair.

"Wake up." I opened my eyes. It felt like five seconds had passed but Bella was sitting on the edge of the bed fully dressed.

I guess she didn't have any more contractions.

"We going home now?" I asked around a yawn.

She sent me the most mischievous grin I had ever seen on her face. I glanced around looking for clues as to what was going on. Jake was scowling in the corner, his arms crossed. The kid looked like someone just told him Christmas was canceled this year. Charlie also had his arms crossed, but his expression was more resigned. I turned back to Bella and her ornery grin. "No. We are going to the courthouse. There is not a chance in hell I'm going to risk going into labor again before we are married. Charlie and Jake are going to be our witnesses."

I jumped out of the bed. Suddenly I wasn't the least bit tired.

**AN: Don't you just love unreasonable in-labor Bella? I was perfectly reasonable both times I was in labor...I swear. Of course, I didn't say a word, which is probably why I was so reasonable. The more pain I'm in, the quieter I am. My thoughts on the other hand, were a completely different story, if only a mind reader had been there...**

**Oh, oh, oh, my _Dad _told me yesterday that he wants me and my husband to have another baby. What. The. Fuck. The man has thirteen grandchildren if you count my sister's ex-step kids and boyfriend's kids (and he does, I knew I loved the man for a reason). My brother just had his _fifth_ kid and we're only 30. Maybe that's where it's coming from. But I have no interest in having another kid. I might wind up with a girl. *shudder* I told him that it's not happening. He seemed a bit disappointed but I'm sure he'll get over it.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**AN: As requested, the courthouse wedding. I didn't actually plan on having a whole chapter dedicated to this. It was originally a paragraph or two in the next chapter. So it's really short…oh, and RealLifeWolfGirl, the explanation for the male back-pounding while hugging is straight from my husband. These are the kind's of things he says. In fact, a lot of what I've typed for this Paul has come out of my husband's mouth at one point or another sans curse words (well...sans most of the curse words)**

**Disclaimer: SM-Twilight**

**Jake's POV**

Paul Fucking Meraz was the bane of my existence. If I ever did step up and take over the Alpha duties I was going to make life a living hell for that mutt. Fuck the imprint. I still say I would be a better man for Bella. He could be her best friend or her brother. They could do each other's hair and nails for all I cared.

But no, somehow he convinced her that she loved him. That they belonged together. And she fell for it. So now I'm stuck here, waiting for the judge to finish sentencing some shit-faced drunk driver so he can come in here and give them a shotgun wedding. Perfect. I killed the fucking leech that has been stalking her and this is the thanks I get! I have to watch her marry the other guy! And not just _any_ other guy. No, she had to go and marry the one guy in the pack that I couldn't stand. He has been a complete asshole since the day he was born and has only gotten worse since he started phasing. Why couldn't she see that?

They were sitting in the corner, staring all lovey-dovey at each other. It was sickening and infuriating at the same time. I wanted to go over there and yank them apart, pull Bella into my arms and kiss some sense into her. If only I could shake her hard enough to get her to understand that I would make a much better husband to her. And I'd make a damn good father to those babies. I was sure of it. Paul on the other hand was sure to lose his temper ten times a day. He would yell and cuss. Those kids would be spelling four letter words in first grade. They would be expelled for fighting in middle school. I was sure of it. UGH! Why couldn't she see the mistake she was making!

Charlie clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Things will get easier."

I turned a glare his direction.

He chuckled. "They will. Just wait until you meet your imprint."

"Imprinting is rare, Charlie. Chances are I'm never going to love anyone more than I love her. And she's about to marry a jackass."

There was a low growl from the corner.

"Doesn't seem so rare to me," Charlie stated neutrally, ignoring the rest of my complaint.

I clenched my shaking hands and glared at the floor. Why did Bella have to look at me with those big brown eyes and ask me to be a witness for her? Couldn't she have called one of the other guys to come out and do this for her? She knew I couldn't turn her down. I didn't want to watch this!

The door opened and the judge walked in. My heart fell as Bella's face lit up. She was so excited. She was about five seconds short of bouncing up and down and clapping her hands like a two-year-old at a parade. Dammit. There was no way she was backing out of this.

Due to Bella's state, the judge allowed them to stay seated, only making them move to a pair of chairs directly across from his desk. He took a few moments to talk to them, asking them a few questions. The usual you would expect an adult to ask a couple of teenagers wanting to be married. What is your plan to provide for the child? Where will you live? What are your plans for the future? What about further education? Are you sure that you want to do this? Is anyone pressuring you to do this? He looked right at Paul and then glanced at Charlie when he asked this question. I had to restrain myself from snorting. He should have been looking at Bella instead of Paul. She was the one most likely to be pressured into this. Paul was dying to marry the girl. He would have married her the night she showed up on Charlie's doorstep. The judge must have been satisfied with their answers because before I knew it they were repeating vows and he was pronouncing them man and wife.

_Wait a minute, where's the part when they ask if anyone has any reason they shouldn't be wed? I had a damn good reason! Cause I love her more than he does!_ That fucking judge never gave me the opportunity to speak up or forever hold my peace!

When it came time to sign the paper as a witness I grabbed the pen with a shaking hand. I bent over the paper and lowered the pen, but I couldn't get my hand to write. There was a low growl, probably low enough that no one else in the room could hear. I glanced up to see Paul giving me a warning look. I was fairly certain that he would actually kill me if I didn't sign that piece of paper. So I lowered my eyes and forced my hand to go through the motions, watching in horror as my name scrawled across the page. Fuck, she was Isabella Meraz now.

She was gone forever.

**AN: So how's that for an hour's work off the top of my head? I know, it's way too short, but like I said, never planned on going into any detail on it anyway. This is just because you guys asked...and apparently I'm a review whore and can't say no. **


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**AN: Dammit, I almost forgot to tie up this loose end. I was about to post the chapter that will come after this and suddenly realized that I hadn't ever worked this in. And this will be the only opportunity to work this in before I end the story.**

**Disclaimer: Twilight-SM**

**PPOV**

Bella was snoring softly. I couldn't help but chuckle. The baby books said that was a common side-effect of pregnancy. But then, again, it could be something that she did before she was ever pregnant. I'm sure she would deny it either way. She probably had no idea she was doing it. She would be fucking mortified if I told her she had been snoring. I brushed my lips across her brow gently before easing out of the bed. I didn't want to wake her up. I tucked the covers around my wife, _I love those words_,_ my wife_, and slipped quietly from the room.

Jake was waiting impatiently for me outside. I stripped quickly and joined him.

_"It's about fucking time."_

I let his words roll off my back. He was just jealous.

_"Fuck you."_

We ran in silence. I kept my mind on our mission. Jake and I had been sneaking out every night, hunting the fucking human who had taken the pictures for Victoria. It was risky. Bella could go into labor at any time. Seth was on baby duty now every night. He had strict orders to alert me if Bella's heartbeat picked up or if her breathing changed at all. I had run back from Seattle one night because she had to pee. But Jake and I weren't going to give up until we found the bastard and took care of him. Or until Bella caught me.

_ "And how are you planning on taking care of him?" _Seth asked from his spot under the bedroom window at my house.

I refused to let myself envision any specific plans and I could see that Jake did the same. _"Just focus on Bella, Seth."_

_ "You know we aren't supposed to hurt people, just bloodsuckers," _Seth admonished.

_"Shut the fuck up, kid."_

_ "The kid is right." _Jared butted in from patrol.

Now that Victoria was gone we were down to running two-wolf patrols. Jared was running with Leah. I could feel her presence but she was staying out of the conversation. She didn't seem to have a problem with Jake and I serving as the judge, jury and executioner, so to speak. Jared wasn't too thrilled with it though.

These were the times that I hated the pack mind. As if Jared would be any better if someone had threatened Kim's life. I ignored the others the best I could and cleared my mind, concentrating on my paws hitting the ground. When we neared Seattle Jake and I were forced to phase back to human. The city was too brightly lit to allow two giant wolves to freely roam without inciting panic. Our sense of smell wasn't as good this way, but it was better than a regular human.

I had a theory that the photographer was a private investigator. He had known how to sneak past the patrol, which most people wouldn't know how to do. Also, I had smelled some serious fear on the spots the person had been hiding in when he paused to let the patrols go past. He had some kind of strong motivation to keep going. He may have been just terrified to refuse Victoria. But I had a feeling it had more to do with not wanting to lose the money a client would give him.

Mainly though, it had to be a fucking private dick because otherwise I had no fucking way to find the bastard in a city this fucking big. At least the private investigators were in the yellow pages. There is no listing for mother-fucking leech sympathizers.

I frowned as we neared the next place on our list. It was in a run-down strip mall. The light above the door was blown out but there was a light on somewhere deep inside the office, shining weakly out of the glass doorway. Something wasn't right. My skin crawled and all my senses buzzed. I couldn't quite pinpoint it though.

"Do you smell that?" Jake asked.

I sniffed and recoiled. "Yeah."

Something inside that office was dead.

I felt a smile tugging at my lips. Maybe we would get lucky. The fucker might be dead already.

Jake curled his lip at me. "You're sick."

I shrugged, covered my shirt in my hand and tried the handle. It wasn't even locked. A wave of putrid air so strong it nearly knocked me over wafted out of the building. Jake staggered back, retching a few times. I walked into the office, looking around warily. I wouldn't put it past that crazy bitch to station one of her underlings here just to mess with whoever finally stopped by to investigate.

The reception area of the office was untouched. It looked like they could open for business in the morning, if not for that fucking awful reek. I followed the smell through the only door, which led to a tiny broom-closet of an office. A desk filled up the entire space, leaving almost no room for chairs on either side of the desk. The private investigator had been forced to watch his diet or else he wouldn't have been able to fit into the space between his chair and his desk. Although, judging by the state of the office I was in, he probably couldn't really afford to eat anyway.

"She was a messy eater." Jake commented.

The guy looked like he had been attacked by a wild animal. Maybe that was for the best though. The cops were going to find him eventually, and they would have to explain his death somehow. A wild animal attack in the middle of Seattle was going to be hard enough to explain.

"I have to be sure this is the guy." I muttered. What if she had more than one private investigator? This could be just a random victim. Or an intended member of the newborn army. Perhaps the changing process got a little out of hand.

Trying to ignore the proximity to the rotting flesh besides me, which smelled _fantastic_ up close by the way, I started rifling through the papers on the desk. Nothing looked familiar though. None of it pertained to Bella. How the fuck was I supposed to go home without knowing for a fact that the person responsible for sending her into false labor was dead? I needed hard proof. I needed evidence.

"Try the computer." Jake offered.

Well it was better than looking through the fucking papers for the third time. I turned to the computer and rolled the mouse, waking the PC from sleep. Now what? There wasn't a lot of time available to me to become computer savvy. I could play solitaire. That was about it. I turned to Jake with a growl.

"Maybe you should do this part."

He shrugged. "You'll have to move your ass out of the way."

I scrambled out from behind the desk, happy to be away from the corpse. I had no problem being around dead leeches. Hell, I preferred dead leeches to live ones any day. But this dead body was giving me the creeps. I watched as Jake opened some window and typed in Bella's name next to search. A little file appeared and he opened it, revealing the note that she had shown me. The one that had been sent to her with the photos.

I turned to the corpse with a growl. If he wasn't already so fucking deteriorated I would hit him a few times just for the hell of it. He looked kind of bloated and nasty though. I was afraid of what might happen if I touched him.

"Well that's fucking great. We wasted all this time looking for him when he's already dead." Jake muttered.

I scowled. Dammit. I could be in bed with my wife. Shit. Fuck! I was wasting perfectly good wife-cuddling time with a fucking rotting corpse. Clenching my hands I turned and left the room. I was going home. First, I was going to throw away these clothes, because I was certain this stench was never washing out. Then I was taking a shower. Then I was going to curl around my wife, and stay there until she made me get up.


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

**AN: I feel kinda sad now 'cause this is the last chapter of this particular story. There are details on my next story at the end.**

**Disclaimer: Twilight=SM**

I sat up gingerly, assessing the way my body felt with every movement. It was sore, very sore, but what did I expect? I had just pushed two people out of it not more than twenty-four hours earlier. A yawn pulled at my mouth and I surrendered to it, closing my eyes. I was exhausted. The labor hadn't been as long as some of the horror stories I had heard, but sixteen hours hadn't been exactly easy either. Thank goodness for the epidural.

I opened my eyes to see Charlie standing in front of me, an uncomfortable expression on his face. "Hey, Dad."

He crossed his arms and frowned at me. "Bella…you need to tell that boy the truth."

I frowned in confusion. Was it just my exhaustion, or was Charlie making no sense? "What?"

Charlie clenched his jaw and glanced toward the two baby carriers in the corner. I had to smile as I looked at my girls. They were beautiful. They had my skin tone with little wisps of blond curly hair and startling blue eyes. I could see them as young women. They were going to have boys lining up for their attention. Paul was going to be a basket case. It was going to be great.

"He's still high on the whole birth experience but it isn't going to take long for him to realize that there is no way on earth that he is the father. They have blond hair and blue eyes for crying out loud! How do you think your husband is going to feel when he realizes that you've been lying to him this whole time, Bella? He doesn't deserve this! He'll forgive you, eventually, because of the imprint but this is going to break his heart!" Charlie was looking at me with the most disapproving, disappointed expression I had ever seen.

I shook my head, my eyes wide. It took me a moment to gather my wits and speak, and the whole time Charlie's eyes were boring into me. "Dad, he knows. He's always known. We've never even had sex! Of course he knows!"

Charlie's mouth opened and closed a few times as a blush began to spread across his cheeks. "You…you haven't?"

Paul walked into the room then, effectively halting our conversation. "The car is pulled up to the door. Ready to go home?"

I smiled at him. I was definitely ready to go home. A part of me still felt bad about not including Renee, Phil, Sue and the rest of the pack in our wedding. But something in Paul had relaxed as soon as the words 'Man and Wife' had crossed the judge's lips. He seemed to stand taller and have more confidence. He smiled wider. Even if the elopement hadn't been the ideal wedding it was definitely worth it, just because it put that smile on his face.

We had spent one more night at Charlie's. Then we moved into Paul's house. It was a three bedroom, one and a half bath house. The twins' room was even big enough to allow us to buy another crib so the twins wouldn't have to share. And the guestroom was being put to immediate use. Renee decided to come down for a few weeks to give us a hand with the twins, just until we figured out a routine. She arrived one week after the false labor episode. For the next week we endured her attempts at cooking and enjoyed her company. After a particularly bad fried rice episode I swore off Chinese food for a year and Renee promised to get take out for the duration of her visit.

Charlie and Paul carried a baby carrier each while a hospital worker wheeled me out of the hospital in a wheelchair, stupid hospital policy. Then I sat in the back of the car between the girls as Paul drove us home. I spent the entire ride admiring the girls. It was amazing to think that two such perfect creatures could have any connection at all to such a horrible man. I never thought that I would ever be grateful for having known Randy, but right now I could kiss the man. How could I not be thankful for having gone through what I had if it brought me my daughters?

When we arrived at the house I was surprised to see that most of the pack was there, judging by the cars parked out front. I shouldn't have been surprised though. They'd been waiting to meet the girls almost as long as I had after all. Paul growled a little as he put the car in park.

"Couldn't they have waited one day? You need your rest."

"We can let them stay for a little while. Maybe an hour? Then we'll kick them out," I suggested.

"Half an hour."

Charlie and Paul once again carried the baby carriers, and Paul helped me maneuver myself out of the car. It was difficult with my sore muscles, but I managed. All I wanted to do when I walked into the house was continue on to the bedroom, climb into bed and pass out. Instead, I made my way to the couch and sat down. Paul settled next to me and handed me one of our daughters. He took the other.

"Guys, this is Ayla Sue Meraz," I held her up for all to see.

Paul held up her sister. "And this is Elianna Renee Meraz."

Everyone made the appropriate remarks about how gorgeous they were. Then they asked me how I was feeling. We passed the babies around, which made me a little nervous. I watched them anxiously until they were back in my arms. Somehow the girls managed to stay asleep as they were passed back and forth from one set of hands to another. They didn't open their eyes until they were both back in my lap.

"Wow, they have really blue eyes," Seth commented.

Everyone crowded around again to see. I glanced up to gauge their reactions. When I got to Jacob my heart skipped a beat. _Fuck._ I glanced over at Paul. He was going to explode when he realized what had just happened. I looked around for Sam, frantically. He needed to get over here right now. Somehow he must have felt me looking at him because he glanced up. I motioned with my eyes toward Paul. He frowned, not understanding. So I widened my eyes and glanced toward Jacob. He looked that way and finally noticed what was going on.

Unfortunately, so did Paul.

"Fuck no! You get the fuck away from my daughter Jacob Black!"

Jake's eyes finally broke away from Ayla's, losing the adoring look and filling with panic as Paul pushed himself off the couch. Jake backed away as Paul advanced. Both of them were shaking.

Jake held his hands up. "You know I couldn't help it."

"She's a fucking baby! She's MY fucking baby!"

"Ah, man, you know I don't feel anything that like for her right now. And look at it this way, you'll always have free babysitting now."

"Like hell I'm going to let you babysit her! You aren't getting anywhere near her."

Paul was still advancing and they were both shaking uncontrollably.

Jake frowned. "Fuck you! She's my fucking imprint! I have to be around her!"

"She's my daughter! You aren't touching her! I'm gonna kill you!"

Then they both took off out the door.

I sighed. Why hadn't I seen that coming? Now that it had happened, it seemed inevitable that one of the wolves would have imprinted on one of my daughters. Thank goodness Renee was out. She was getting dinner for the three of us. That would have been a little hard to explain. The past week had been difficult. Paul's patrols had been cut down, with me being so close to giving birth, but he did still have responsibilities to the pack. And some of those patrols had been at night. Poor Paul had been forced to sneak out his own bedroom window.

Brady walked in the door, glancing behind him. "Why is Paul chasing Jake?"

"He imprinted on Ayla."

Brady's mouth dropped open. "Oh shit. He's gonna kill Jake."

I nodded. "Exactly."

Brady walked up. "So which one of these poor girls is stuck with Ja…"

His words dropped off. I glanced up to see his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open. His eyes were fixed on Elianna and they were slowly filling with a look of pure love. _You have to be kidding me. This is just ridiculous._ _I'm not having any more kids until every member of this fucking pack has imprinted._

Paul walked in, growling. "Dammit, he got away. Fucker's fast."

I sighed as Paul caught the expression on Brady's face. The poor kid was so focused on Elianna he didn't even see Paul storming toward him. This time Sam had time to intercept him.

Sam grabbed Paul, pushing him toward the door.

"Get the fuck away from my daughter!"

Brady snapped out of it, spinning around toward Paul with a look of panic. "Shit! I didn't mean to do it!"

Deja vu.

Paul was growling and shaking again. "I'm gonna kill you, you little shit!"

Paul was between Brady and the front door. So Brady turned and took off for the kitchen and the back door. I shook my head as Paul jerked himself out of Sam's grasp and ran out the front door.

"Sam, please keep him from killing them. I'm fairly certain they'll be my future sons-in-law."

Sam gave me a small smile and headed for the front door. A very pale Renee walked in just as Sam walked out. She stood there with wide eyes, pizza boxes piled high in her arms. "Can someone please explain to me how my son-in-law and that Brady boy just turned into giant wolves?"

**AN: So there you have it. I actually finished a fucking story! I never do that! Probably because I've never let anyone read them before so I've never had any reason to finish them. But I would have felt too guilty not finishing, especially with such faithful reviewers. You guys all rock. I've kicked my oldest kid off my computer every morning at 5:30 so I could check my email for new reviews while I ate my breakfast. So he'll be happy that I'm done. I'm a little sad. I've become completely addicted to reviews. I was a little worried about the withdrawals so...****I'm working on pulling one of my original stories into Twilight. It is an OC and Paul story, Everything About You. Hopefully it will give me a reason to continue kicking my kid off my computer! I posted a couple chapters already if you're interested.**


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